rashbre central: man proposes...

Thursday 16 August 2007

man proposes...

landseer man proposes, god disposes
Several hectic moments today as I travelled around to various meetings. Along the way I found myself in a rather special Picture Gallery, which initially impressed me simply as a building, then I noticed the pictures and then i noticed, hmmm, "Some of these are quite famous".

Quite unexpected, but as an example, I've picked the rather gory one by Sir Edwin Henry Landseer "Man Proposes, God Disposes", showing the loss of Sir John Franklin's expedition to find a North-West Passage, in 1845.

This circa 3 metre by 1 metre picture illustrates two polar bears, their fierce and brutal natures uncompromisingly portrayed, tearing up the remnants of the expedition. Landseer is more known for paintings of horses and dogs, but also designed the huge lions at the base of Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square.

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