In Ship in Boston Harbor near Narrows ‘Bug’ Light, painted in 1881 when the beacon was still standing, Halsall captures a ship entering Boston Harbor through the main shipping channel, the light marking the channel on the left and a pilot boat guiding the ship on the right. Painted from the perspective of Lovells or Georges Island, Hull and Allerton can be seen in the distance. While the harbor is frozen over and the ship’s rigging is coated in ice, the scene is bathed in warm afternoon light, casting a glow on the sails and snow-covered floes. 

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Best known for his depictions of Boston Harbor, Halsall’s summer working-place of choice was Middle Brewster, one of the numerous islands in the harbor. Strategically located further out to sea, this site allowed Halsall to capture the storms and crashing waves of the ocean without the discomfort of actually being on one of the many passing ships. His familiarity with the sea gave him a unique perspective when capturing the maritime activity that he so loved to paint. 

In 1914, Halsall helped found the Provincetown Art Association, serving as one of the first honorary vice presidents alongside Charles W. Hawthorne and E. Ambrose Webster. He was a member of the Boston Art Club, exhibiting there almost annually between 1879 and 1906, and also showed at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. Examples of Halsall’s work can be found in the Mariners Museum in Newport News, Virginia, the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland, Maine, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, the Provincetown Art Association and Museum, the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, and the United States Naval Academy Museum in Annapolis. Halsall’s First Battle of the Ironclads, purchased by the United States government in 1887, hung in the Capitol in Washington, DC, until it was transferred in 1946 to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Provenance:

Massachusetts estate sale

By purchase to private collection, Newburyport, Massachusetts, May 2023 to present

Labels:

1. (upper left corner of stretchers, partially torn) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association exhibition label from 188[?]
2. (verso of canvas, visible through lining) F. W. Devoe & Co. stamp

Exhibitions:

(likely) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, ca. 1881