Lot 57: JOHN ERIC CHRISTIAN PETERSEN (American, 1839-1874)

JOHN ERIC CHRISTIAN PETERSEN (American, 1839-1874)
Bug Light, Boston Narrows
sgn. l.r. John E.C. Petersen
o/c, 24 by 40 in., gilt frame
Prov.: a Marblehead, MA estate
Bug Light was built on a sandbar in 1867 to mark the location of the treacherous Harding's Ledge at the approach to The Narrows. On June 7, 1929, the last Bug Light keeper escaped a fire which started in a tank which held the oil for the light. Bug Light was was eventually replaced by an automatic light.
A great American marine painter, Petersen was born in Copenhagen and died in Melrose, Massachusetts at the age of 35. His works were accepted at the annual exhibitions of the Boston Athenaeum, the National Academy of Design and the Brooklyn Art Association. He is represented in the Peabody Essex Museum and the Mystic Seaport Museum.