"Boats in the Harbor, Venice" by American Artist Lemuel D. Eldred

Lemuel D. Eldred was born in 1848 and raised in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, near the whaling industry of New Bedford. He went on to become a talented marine painter. Eldred traveled through Europe in the 1880s and briefly trained at the Académie Julian in Paris before returning to Massachusetts. There, Eldred set about depicting New England’s dramatic seascapes, rocky beaches and quiet coastal villages in the tight, realistic manner of the Hudson River School’s second generation. He was close to the great marine painter William Bradford, who was also from Fairhaven, and the two artists frequently returned to the New Bedford region to paint. Eldred exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Boston Art Club, and the New Haven Paint and Clay Club. His work is now featured in the Peabody Essex Museum, the Old Dartmouth Historical Society and the Kendall Whaling Museum.