Not on display
- Artist
- Briton Riviere 1840–1920
- Medium
- Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions
- Support: 1190 × 1845 mm
frame: 1590 × 2255 × 150 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Presented by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest 1894
- Reference
- N01577
Display caption
This dramatic icy landscape represents the Arctic as a place of extreme and sublime beauty. Humans are nowhere to be seen and the polar bear reigns. Animal painter Briton Rivière painted the scene from his imagination based on written accounts of Arctic explorers, with the bear itself drawn from one in London Zoo. Rivière was interested in his friend Charles Darwin’s ideas on evolution and the relationship of animals to humans.
Gallery label, September 2020
Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.
Features
Explore
- places(26,472)
-
- countries and continents(17,398)
You might like
-
Frederick Goodall The Ploughman and the Shepherdess: Time of the Evening Prayer
1897 -
Adrian Stokes Uplands and Sky
1886–8 -
Henry William Banks Davis Approaching Night
1899 -
James Aumonier The Black Mountains
exhibited 1905 -
Harold Speed The Alcantara, Toledo, by Moonlight
1894 -
George Dunlop Leslie The Deserted Mill
exhibited 1906 -
Arthur Lemon An Encampment
date not known -
Sir George Clausen A Frosty March Morning
1904 -
Sir William Blake Richmond The Libyan Desert, Sunset
1888 -
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt ‘The Moon is Up, and Yet it is not Night’
1890 -
George Frederic Watts Study of Clouds
c.1890–1900 -
Simeon Solomon The Moon and Sleep
1894 -
Roger Fry Landscape with Shepherd, near Villa Madama, Rome
1891 -
Paul Maitland The Three Public-Houses, Morning Sun Light
c.1889 -
Sir John Everett Millais, Bt Dew-Drenched Furze
1889–90
