Beschreibung:

ADMIRAL SIR GEORGE BACK (1796-1878) Boats getting afloat (near sunset), July 7, 1826; Boats aground and the Esquimaux beginning to be refractory (4pm), July 7 1826; Mount Fitton, July 13 1826; Seaward View from Flaxmans Island, August 7 AM 1826; Return Reef, August 18 PM 1826; and Summer Camp five signed, inscribed and dated as titles, watercolour 6 x 8in. (15.2 x 20.3cm.) (five) 4¾ x 10½ in. (12.1 x 26.6cm.) (one) (6) A fine series of finished watercolours illustrating incidents and scenery during Sir John Franklin's second overland expedition to map the arctic coastline of northern Canada. Lieutenant Back was appointed to the expedition by default after the death of the Admiralty's first choic Lieutenant John Bushnan. Franklin had not apparently been satisfied with Back's conduct during his first expedition of 1819-1822. The appointment was a success however and Back provides a vivid record of the journey, which mapped 374 miles of the Arctic coast, from the mouth of the Mackenzie River west to Return Reef. A selection of Back's finished watercolours were used in the published account of the journey: Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea. (London: 1828). It contains 31 plates (20 are based on Back's watercolours, 10 on the work of E.N.Kendall). Of the present selection: Boats getting afloat (near sunset) (Abbey plate no. 40); Seaward View from Flaxmans Island (Abbey plate no. 49) are directly related to the engravings. Abbey, Travel II, 635 nos.40 & 49. Two illustrated.