The 'Terra Nova' in McMurdo Sound
Details
Herbert George Ponting (1871-1935)
The 'Terra Nova' in McMurdo Sound
blue grey-toned carbon print
21¼ x 28¼in. (54 x 71.8cm.)
There is a label inscribed by Griffith-Taylor attached to the reverse: 'Taken in 1911/Camera Study by H Ponting/shows the Terra Nova in MacMurdo Sound off Mt Erebus - Views to West./In the far distance are the peaks/of the Royal Society Range (in the SW/corner of the Ross Sea) rising to 13000'/In the foreground the effects of the Sun/on a fringe of the land ice - obviously of/some years age, & fretted into pinnacles/Note the front shows reflections./Griffiths Taylor/RAE 1910-1913'.
The 'Terra Nova' in McMurdo Sound
blue grey-toned carbon print
21¼ x 28¼in. (54 x 71.8cm.)
There is a label inscribed by Griffith-Taylor attached to the reverse: 'Taken in 1911/Camera Study by H Ponting/shows the Terra Nova in MacMurdo Sound off Mt Erebus - Views to West./In the far distance are the peaks/of the Royal Society Range (in the SW/corner of the Ross Sea) rising to 13000'/In the foreground the effects of the Sun/on a fringe of the land ice - obviously of/some years age, & fretted into pinnacles/Note the front shows reflections./Griffiths Taylor/RAE 1910-1913'.
Provenance
By descent from Griffith Taylor's goddaughter to her son, the present owner.
Literature
R.F. Scott, Scott's Last Expedition, London, 1914, I, illustrated facing p. 90.
H.G. Ponting, The Great White South, London, 1921, facing p. 69 ('Death of an Iceberg').
H.G. Ponting, The Great White South, London, 1921, facing p. 69 ('Death of an Iceberg').
Exhibited
Liverpool, The Rushworth Hall, The British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913, Exhibition of the Photographic Pictures of Herbert G. Ponting F.R.G.S., no. 25 (another print): 'This study, made on a dead-calm day, shows a berg in the last stages of decay, from the action of the sun and sea. In this condition the ice frequently assumes the most beautiful shapes imaginable, which, reflected in the surface of the sea, sometimes form a scene of extraordinary beauty. Owing to the treacherous nature of such ice, it is exceedingly dangerous to approach. The Terra Nova is seen in the offing, and beyond are the peaks of the Western Mountains of Victoria Land, seventy miles away.'