Alfred Thompson Bricher

Alfred Thompson Bricher (b.1837-d.1908) was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and grew up in Newburyport, Massachusetts. As a young man, he worked as a clerk in Boston from 1851 until 1858, when he became a professional artist. He studied in his leisure time at the Lowell Institute in Boston and also attended an academy in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

In 1858, during a sketching trip to Mount Desert Island in Maine, Bricher met the artists William Stanley Haseltine and Charles Temple Dix, who had a important impact on his style. In the 1860s Bricher followed his contemporaries to the popular vistas of the White Mountains. There, particularly at North Conway, he studied and painted with Albert Bierstadt, William Morris Hunt, Gabriella Eddy, and Benjamin Champney. Bricher was a prolific artist and in 1860-61 alone records 20 finished paintings.

In 1868 Bricher moved to New York City, where he worked in a studio in the YMCA Building. In 1882 he built a house in Southampton, Long Island, where he was able more closely to observe the sea. In 1874 he became a member of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors. During the 1870s he devoted himself almost entirely to marine painting and spent much of his time exploring the coast of Maine, Narragansett Bay, and the Jersey Shore. He was elected an associate of the National Academy of Design in 1879. From 1890 until his death in 1908, Bricher lived in New Dorp, Staten Island.

His paintings were exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum, The Boston Art Club, The National Academy of Design, The Brooklyn Art Association, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Alfred Thompson Bricher is still considered one of the best maritime painters of the late nineteenth century.