The Wreckers
William Holbrook Beard
(American, 1824–1900)
1874
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions35.88 x 71.44 cm (14 1/8 x 28 1/8 in.)
Credit LineJuliana Cheney Edwards Collection
Accession number1979.286
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
In the 1860s Ohio-born Beard won fame in New York for satirical paintings in which animals were substituted for humans. This painting, however, differs from most of those, for its mood is more ominous than humorous, and its meaning is unclear. The predatory crows perched on the half-buried mast of a wrecked ship create an air of unspecified evil; the near-monochrome palette-especially the gray sea and foggy sky-intensifies the atmosphere of mystery and gloom.
Provenance1979, sold by Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 20, 1979)
