Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912)
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Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912)

Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912)

Details
Edward Adrian Wilson (1872-1912)
South Trinidad. South Atlantic Ocean, Sep. 13. 01.; and False Bay. South Africa. Oct 1901

both signed with initials 'E.A.W.' and inscribed and dated as titles (lower left)
watercolour, shaped bottom corners, unframed
4¾ x 8in. (21.1 x 20.3cm.)

PROVENANCE:
By descent from the artist to the present owner.

Discovery put in at South Trinidad on 13 September: 'an island which had never before been scientifically explored...Wilson began at sunrise to sketch its precipitous and inhospitable coast...Scott...had organised his preparations for the examination of the island with care, and the results, illustrated by Wilson's sketches, were collected by Mr Murray and written up by him, for a report which he read before the Royal Geographical Society on his return. Wilson had secured a petrel unknown to the British Museum, which was provisionally named after him - AEstralata Wilsoni.' (G. Seaver, Edward Wilson of the Antarctic, London, 1933, pp.80-81.)

There is another version of the South Trinidad watercolour (titled 'South Trinidad - Monument - Sugar Loaf and Noah's Ark. Sept. 13 '01') in the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI 1323), reproduced in A. Savours (ed.), Edward Wilson Diary of the Discovery Expedition etc., London, 1966, facing p.49 ('I made several sketches of the rugged broken coastline. It was a most striking sight, this oceanic island, after so long seeing nought but clouds and sea and sky. It was dark when I first saw it, but unmistakable from the mountainous rocky outline darker against a dark sky and then the sun rose and it was a beautiful sight.')

Discovery spent ten days (3-13 October) at the Cape, refitting and completing magnetic observations. On 14 October she sailed out of Simon's Bay to False Bay past Danger Point and on to New Zealand. There is another similar view ('In False Bay...Oct 14 '01') in the Scott Polar Research Institution (SPRI 1328), reproduced in A. Savours, op. cit., facing p.65.
2 (2)
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