Herbert George Ponting

The Castle Berg. [c. 1912]

large green toned carbon ꦯprint (550 x 735mm.) with Ponting's signature blindstamped in the 🧸image, framed and glazed

A FINE PHOTOGRAPH, taken on the ill-fated British Antarctic Expedition (1910-1913), known as the "Terra Nova" Expedition, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. ಞHerbert Ponting (1870-1935), the official expedition photographer and cinematographer, was responsible for capturing some of the most famous images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Ponting's images became a memorial to Scott. They were used extensively in the press and at lectures by Ponting and others, and they were exhibited at the Fine Art Society, Bond Street, in 1914.

"ꩵ...the most beautiful iceberg seen by the Expeditiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚon [...] frozen into the ice about a mile from the hut [.] In shape it resembled a fine old medieval castle [...] about 100 feet high [...] a good example of the picturesque shapes into which overturned icebergs are sometimes worn by the erosive action of the wind and water" (No. 71, The Fine Art Society exhibition catalogue, 1914).

PROVENANCE:

Knightsbridge, 30 March 2012, lot 150