TidesNet—Online Collections Entry Detail

DescriptionAn oil painting of a scene along the coast of Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick by Portland, Maine based artist, Harrison Bird Brown. The painting dates to about 1870. The Tides Institute raised the necessary funds to secure the painting at auction in Detroit. The painting shows encampments along a section of Grand Manan’s shoreline known as “Indian Beach” that was frequented by Passamaquoddies who would come there for the summer months to harvest porpoise and fish from the nearby waters. They would dry the harvest on the seawall along the beach. The camps they built to live in were used only during the summer months. They did not spend the winters there. A larger similar oil painting by Brown titled, “Camping on Grand Manan with the W.H. Pratt of Boston Offshore” shows much the same scene and is in the collections of the Portland (Maine) Museum of Art. Brown was an American painter who was born in Portland, Maine in 1831. He is best known for his marine paintings as well as his landscape paintings of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Aid from art critic and patron, John Neal, allowed Brown to become Portland’s most successful nineteenth century artist. He and others established the Portland Society of Art in 1882 that would later become known as the Portland Museum of Art. During his life time, Brown exhibited his work at the National Academy of Design. He moved to London in 1892 to live with his daughter and he died there in 1915. Artist: Harrison Bird Brown Medium: Oil on canvas Classification: Paintings Old Accession Number: 75