Eastport, and Passamaquoddy Bay (View of Hudson Valley)

This boldly colored, fanciful scene depicts the town of Eastport, Maine, and Passamaquoddy Bay, which is part of the Bay of Fundy, dividing the United States and Canada.The work is based on an engraving found in Nathaniel Parker Willis’s American Scenery (1840), an illustrated guidebook to the natural wonders of the young United States.Thomas Chambers eliminated all human figures from the scene and changed the position and number of ships. Such a strategy was typical of the artist, whose marine paintings and landscapes are an unusual combination of compositions borrowed from other artists’ engravings, as well as from his own observation.