'I believe he really is the finest character I ever met' (R.F. Scott)

Classic Ponting photograph from Captain Scott's Terra Nova expedition (1910-1913), showing Edward Wilson, the expedition's Chief Scientist, working on one of the most famous images to come from the Antarctic. Wilson had been with Scott on the Discovery expedition, and was not only an accomplished artist but a qualified doctor, an ornithologist, and a natural historian. He died With Scott on the return from the South Pole.

The Terra Nova expedition was supposed to be the high-water mark of the Golden Age of Antarctic exploration; led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the expedition was to have been the first to reach the South Pole, marking the event with the planting of the Union Jack flag. However the more professionally equipped Norwegian expedition led by Roald Amundsen got there first. Nevertheless Scott's expedition will always be the one best remembered on account of the tremendous courage and bravery shown by Scott and his companions, Wilson, Bowers, Oates, and Evans on their return from the Pole in appalling conditions - perhaps best exemplified by Lawrence 'Titus' Oates who walked from the tent into a blizzard whilst suffering from frostbite and gangrene, knowing that he was not going to survive the journey but hoping that his self-sacrifice might help the others survive.

The photographs were originally published by the Fine Art Society in 1914 in larger format using a different process. It is difficult to date images such as ours, printed at a later date from the original negatives, however based on external evidence from previous examples we date the present image to circa 1935.

Silver gelatin print, mounted, framed and glazed, captioned below image on mount. Image size: 390 x 275 mm; framed: 455 x 345 mm.