Vue de l’Océan Glacial, Pêche au Morse par des Groenlandais (View of the Glacial Ocean, Walrus Fishing in Greenland), 1841

François Auguste Biard (1798-1882) as an adventurous painter. After his fine art training in Lyon, he travelled around Europe before heading for the Great North in 1839. When he returned, he delivered this interpretation of walrus hunting by the Greenlanders.
The strange and dramatic landscape, almost anguished, dominates the hunters. The scene is reduced to an anecdote in the vast landscape that dominates it. The blue tones of the ice create a glacial atmosphere and the mist in the background accentuates the sense of insecurity.
The painting was not completed in the field, but rather in a workshop, using some sketches he had brought back from his travels. For two weeks, the painter explored Spitzberg, the main archipelago of Svalbard, in the company of a convoy of scholars and his companion, Léonie D’Aunet.