FIVE PAINTINGS BY GEORGE MARSTON, ARTIST ON SHACKLETON'S TRANSANTARCTIC EXPEDITION OF 1914-1917 George Marston was a veteran of Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-1909 on the Nimrod. He had illustrated Aurora Australis in 1908, the first book printed in Antarctica (see lot 161) and provided illustrations for Shackleton's famous account of the expedition, The Heart of the Antarctic, published in London in 1909. He taught art on his return from the Nimrod expedition, but remained close to Shackleton and helped to recruit the team for the Transantarctic expedition, running the expedition office in New Burlington Street with Wild. Marston himself, with 'the frame and face of a prizefighter and the disposition of a fallen angel', was chosen by Shackleton to be one of the leading members of the sledging party to cross the Antarctic in addition to fulfilling his role of expedition artist. A selection of Marston's work, along with Hurley's photographs, illustrated Shackleton's South, the leader's official account of the expedition, first published in London in 1919, and Marston exhibited twenty two paintings recording the expedition at the Grosvenor Gallery in May 1922. A number of the latter paintings, including three oils, are now in the collection of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge. Marston's paintings, in particular the oils, remain particularly rare and afford, with Hurley's few photographs, the only visual record of the extraordinary journey of the James Caird, Stancomb Wills and Dudley Docker after the sinking of the Endurance in 1915.
George Edward Marston (1882-1940)

S .Y. Endurance sheltering under lee of Iceberg in Weddell Sea, January 1915

Details
George Edward Marston (1882-1940)
S .Y. Endurance sheltering under lee of Iceberg in Weddell Sea, January 1915
signed and dated 'G. Marston 1918' (lower right), with inscription 'S.Y. ENDURANCE./SHELTERING UNDER/LEE OF ICEBERG IN/WEDDELL SEA. JAN. 1913 [sic]' on the stretcher
oil on canvas, unframed, 13 5/8 x 19¾in. (34.6 x 50.2cm.)
13 5/8 x 19¾in. (34.6 x 50.2cm.)

Lot Essay

'We did not move the ship on the 14th, but on the following day conditions had improved, and in the evening the Endurance was moving southward with sails set and we continued to skirt the barrier in clear weather ... Every mile gained towards the south meant a mile less sledging when the time came for our overland journey.

Shortly before midnight on the 15th we came abreast of the northern edge of a great glacier, projecting beyond the barrier into the sea. It was about 400 ft. high, and at its edge was a large mass of thick bay-ice ... I named the place Glacier Bay, and had reason later to remember it with regret.

The Endurance steamed along the front of this glacier for about seventeen miles, and at 4 a.m. on the 16th we reached the edge of another huge glacial overflow from the ice-sheet. We steamed along the front of this tremendous glacier for forty miles and then were held up by solid pack-ice, which appeared to be held by stranded bergs. No further advance was possible for that day, but the noon observation showed that we had gained 124 miles to the south-west during the preceding twenty-four hours. We pushed the ship against a small berg and a blizzard from the east-north-east prevented us from leaving the shelter of the berg (Sunday, January 17th).

The land, when the air was clear, seemed to rise to 3,000 feet above the head of the glacier. Caird Coast, as I named, connects Coats' Land, discovered by Bruce in 1904, with Luitpold Land, discovered by Filchner in 1912. We were now close to the junction with Luitpold Land.

The ship lay under the lee of the stranded berg until 7 a.m. on January 18th, by which time the gale had moderated so much that we could sail to the south-west through a lane which had opened along the glacier front, and on the morning of the 19th our position was lat. 76° 34' S., long. 31° 30' W.' (Sir E. Shackleton, South, London, 1919, pp. 8-9).

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