Moravian Missionary Conversing with the Eskimos at Nain, Labrador. Midshipman Basil Hall of the Royal Navy, after Maria Spilsbury. Watercolor over pencil with black ink on wove paper. Circa 1807-1830. Paper size, 20 1/2 x 27 inches, 32 x 38 1/4 inches framed. Provenance: Collection of James I. Kochan. This fascinating watercolor is an historical record of the first Moravian mission established at Nain, Labrador. It was founded by the Danish missionary, Jens Haven (1721-1796), here pictured at the center of the composition with his son John-Benjamin beside him, and preaching to a family of Inuit. The watercolor is the work of an artist called Hall and is thought to be after a painting (or a print) by the British painter Maria Spilsbury (1777-1820). In 1807 she is known to have exhibited a work at the Rotal Academy entitled A Missionary of the United Brthern conversing with the Esquimeaux . Scene in the Terra Labrador, month of June; with distant view of Nain. This painting is now lost, but another watercolor, located at the National Archives of Canada, shows the same compositon as the example presently offfered and bears the insciription “Spilsbury” at the lower left. The Canadian work is signed by Hall, this accounting for the attribution of the above watercolor.