Signed T. Bailey, the importance of which in mentioned the brief biography on the artist William Paskell, this work depicts the lighthouse and keeper's residence of Petit Manan miles off the Maine coast. The first lighthouse was ordered here in 1817 by President James Monroe due to the extensive bar between the island and the mainland. The 119-foot tower here is the second to be built, in 1854 and is Maine's second tallest light, after Boon Island.
The painting has a nice composition of rocks, sea and sky in complement to the architectural important of the lighthouse. A stiff breeze pushes the trickle of smoke out of the chimney horizontally as well as the distant sails on the horizon. Many sea captains were well aware that by catching the northern current in relation to the curvature of the Earth that they would reduce their transatlantic sailing time along the East Coast.
