Rear Admiral Sir James Clark Ross, D.C.L: F.R.S. From the Original Portrait in the Royal Hospital Greenwich by several Naval Officers & Scientific Men in honour of his great discoveries & Achievements in the Arctic and the Antarctic Regions by [ROSS, James Clark (1800-1862)] - PEARCE, Stephen (1819-1904); after - 1850

[London, 1850. Mezzotint portrait, engraved by Alexander Scott after Stephen Pearce. Sheet size: approx. 23 x 17 1/2 inches. A fine portrait of Polar explorer James Clark Ross. The nephew of Arctic explorer Sir John Ross, James Clark Ross accompanied his uncle on his first voyage to the Arctic in 1818 before serving under William Parry on his expeditions to the Arctic between 1819 and 1827. His most noted Arctic accomplishment, however, would be on Sir John Ross' second voyage, where he led a small party to locate the position of the North Magnetic Pole on 1 June 1831 on the Boothia Peninsula. Following that success, James Clark Ross was given command of the ships Erebus and Terror (later of Sir John Franklin fame) on a voyage to the Antarctic. On that 1839-1843 expedition, Ross forced his way through the ice pack becoming the first to enter what would be named Ross Sea and to lay eyes on numerous Antarctic features, including the Ross Ice Shelf, Victoria Land, the Admiralty Mountains and more. Both his discovery of the Magnetic North Pole, as well as his attainment of the highest southern latitude to date are commemorated on this fine portrait. The artist, Stephen Pearce, painted two portraits of Ross (1800-1862): . the original of the present image which remains in Greenwich, as well as one now in the National Portrait Gallery, London.