The Northern Whale Fishery, by William John Huggins 1835

The Northern Whale Fishery, by William John Huggins. The Ship Harmony of Hull and other Ice-Bound Whalers on the Davis Straits between Baffin Bay, Canada and Greenland. Sometimes named as the North Sea Whale Fishery. Not: Huggins, first painted this well-known image in 1828. Entitled Northern Whale Fishery, the image was engraved by Edward Duncan in 1829 (Huggins son-in-law). The original 1828 work now hangs in the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts. This second, larger and more proficient interpretation of the scene was most likely commissioned by Robert Bell in 1835 (son to Thomas Bell, owner of the Harmony). The American built bark Harmony of 292 tons sits at the center of the painting with the Margaret of London to the left and the Eliza Swan of Montrose to the right. Nearly every aspect of whaling is depicted- from the chase and capture, to processing the catch alongside, to “trying out” or boiling down the blubber on Harmony’s bow. Two other masted ships are shown, including one foundering as the ice closes in on her hull, her crew surely trying to salvage what they can as they stand alongside. Penguins gather on an ice floe near one of the twelve depicted whale boats as it closes in on a catch. Oil on canvas. 28 ⅝ x 52 ⅝ Inches. LL: W.J. Huggins, 1835