Hartwell Leon Woodcock (1852-1929) was a prominent late nineteenth and early twentieth century American painter whose landscapes and seascapes of the Bahamas and coastal New England remain enduringly popular.

Woodcock was born on Nov. 20, 1852, in the town of Searsmont, Maine, the son of Marlboro Packard Woodcock (1823-1911) and Mary A. (Howard) Woodcock (1828-1907). At an early age he moved with his parents to Belfast, Maine, a historic seaport and shipbuilding center that would become his primary lifelong residence. His father — who served as the mayor of Belfast in 1881 — was a successful shipbuilder and local merchant, and Hartwell began his artistic career while working as a clerk at the family’s stationary and book store ...