Amidst a grey skies and misty air, a white fishing shack is pictured on in the harbor of Bradley Wharf, in Rockport Massachusetts. Next to it is a red shack, depicted at the far right of the work. Known as “Motif Number 1”, it has been regarded as the one of the most frequently painted buildings -and the most popular fishing shack- in America. Sciver, however, chose its humble white companion as her subject, capturing a scene of daily harbor activity.
Beginning within the 1840s Rockport was home to a colony of artists, and by 1900 many well known painters spent summers in the area, including Winslow Homer, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Childe Hassam, and Maurice Prendergast, often finding inspiration in the picturesque red shack. Motif Number 1 was even used as an artist studio in the 1930s.
