Sir Ernest Shackleton.

Signed and dated. Image size 395 by 550mm framed to 480 by 630 mm. Pencil and oil on canvas,

A handsome portrait of one great Antarctic explorer by another.

 

Sir Wally Herbert (1934 - 2007) was lifelong veteran of both Arctic and Antarctic exploration, approaching both with a sense of adventure most often associated with the Heroic Age. He was also a keen artist from an early age. After quitting the Royal Engineers in Egypt he vagabonded his way across the Middle East and Mediterranean drawing portraits for board and lodgings. His exploration career took him first to the Antarctic with the New Zealand sledging expedition, and then north to the Arctic, where his efforts culminated in the 1969 trans-Arctic expedition which successfully crossed the icecap via the North Pole. 

 

As well as capturing a good likeness, Herbert's portrait of Sir Ernest Shackleton is all the more significant for the fact that he had quite literally followed in his footsteps. In 1961-62 when surveying the Queen Maud range, Herbert ascended a the Beardmore Glacier via a route discovered by Shackleton in 1908, and then used again by Captain Scott in 1911. This journey is recounted in Herbert's 1962 book A World of Men. 

 

The portrait is based upon a photograph taken by Frank Hurley, the official photographer on the Imperial Trans Antarctic Expedition, aboard the ship Endurance. Shackleton, known to his crew as "The Boss", is depicted in the informal garb of a working sailor, complete with his sledging harness. 

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Stock Code: 217112