''Man Proposes, God Disposes'' is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist

Sir Edwin Landseer Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (7 March 1802 – 1 October 1873) was an English painter and sculptor, well known for his paintings of animals – particularly horses, dogs, and stags. His best-known work is the lion sculptures at the base of Nelso ...

. The work was inspired by the search for

Franklin's lost expedition Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, and , and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest ...

which disappeared in the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

after 1845. The painting is in the collection of

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RH), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public university, public research university and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. It ...

, and is the subject of

superstitious A superstition is any belief or practice considered by non-practitioners to be irrational or supernatural, attributed to fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and p ...

urban myth Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...

that the painting is haunted.

Description

The painting adopts the dark tones of Landseer's later works. The scene shows two

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...

s among the scattered wreckage of the expedition – a telescope, the tattered remains of a

red ensign The Red Ensign or Red Duster is the civil ensign of the United Kingdom. It is one of the British ensigns, and it is used either plain or defacement (flag), defaced with either a Glossary of vexillology#Flag elements, badge or a Glossary of v ...

, a sail, and human bones, which

William Michael Rossetti William Michael Rossetti (25 September 1829 – 5 February 1919) was an English writer and critic. Early life Born in London, Rossetti was a son of exiled Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Polidori, Frances Rossetti '' ...

called "the saddest of '' membra disjecta''". The image shows humanity and civilization defeated by " nature, red in tooth and claw", and can be seen as a commentary on the crisis of British triumphalism and imperialism in the middle of the 19th century.

Background

The painting depicts an imagined

scene in the aftermath of Sir

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadia ...

's expedition in 1845 to explore the

Northwest Passage The Northwest Passage (NWP) is the sea lane between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Arctic Ocean, near the northern coast of North America via waterways through the Arctic Archipelago of Canada. The eastern route along the Arctic ...

. The 134 men of Franklin's expedition left

Greenhithe Greenhithe may refer to: *Greenhithe, Kent Greenhithe is a village in the Borough of Dartford in Kent, England, and the civil parish of Swanscombe and Greenhithe. It is located east of Dartford and west of Gravesend. Area In the past, Gree ...

in May 1845 on two steam-powered ironclad icebreakers, HMS ''Erebus'' and HMS ''Terror''. After five left the ship, the remaining 129 men were last seen by a whaling vessel in

Lancaster Sound Lancaster Sound () is a body of water in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located between Devon Island and Baffin Island, forming the eastern entrance to the Parry Channel and the Northwest Passage. East of the sound lies Baffin ...

in July 1845, but then disappeared without trace into the ice. The expedition was well-provisioned for a voyage of several years, but eventually, search parties were sent out as time passed and no further sightings were made. In 1854,

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

recounted tales of sightings in 1850 to Captain John Rae of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

, and he found some dead bodies on

King William Island King William Island (, ; previously: King William Land) is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the list of islands by area, 61st-largest island in the world ...

. Rae also reported suspicions of

cannibalism Cannibalism is the act of consuming another individual of the same species as food. Cannibalism is a common ecological interaction in the animal kingdom and has been recorded in more than 1,500 species. Human cannibalism is also well document ...

among the last survivors. In 1859,

Francis Leopold McClintock Sir Francis Leopold McClintock (8 July 1819 – 17 November 1907) was an Irish explorer in the British Royal Navy, known for his discoveries in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. He confirmed explorer John Rae's controversial report gather ...

published ''The Voyage of the ''Fox'' in the Arctic Seas'', an account of his voyage on the ''Fox'' in search of Franklin from 1857 to 1859, and his discovery of the remains of two crew from ''Erebus'' on King William Island earlier in 1859, together with the ship's boat and other detritus. The painting may also have been inspired by

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (; 5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a German Romanticism, German Romantic Landscape painting, landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation, whose often symbolic, and anti ...

's 1824 painting '' The Sea of Ice'', and

Frederic Edwin Church Frederic Edwin Church (May 4, 1826 – April 7, 1900) was an American landscape painting, landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters, best known for paintin ...

's '' The Icebergs'', which was first exhibited in New York in 1861 and shown in London in 1863.

Origin of the title

The phrase "Man proposes, but God disposes" is a translation of the Latin phrase "Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit" from Book I, chapter 19, of ''

The Imitation of Christ ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'', a 15th-century book by the German cleric

Thomas à Kempis Thomas à Kempis, CRV ( – 25 July 1471; ; ) was a German-Dutch Catholic canon regular of the Augustinians and the author of '' The Imitation of Christ'', one of the best known Christian devotional books. His name means "Thomas of Kempen", ...

. A few modernized and paraphrased Bible translations use it as a translation of , but the original of that verse is longer and more elaborate. The phrase was also put on a Dutch commemorative medal celebrating the Elizabethan England Protestant victory in 1588 over the Catholic

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

. A similar phrase appears in the concluding lines of

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

's "Symposium" (circa 150 AD), quoting from the concluding lines of

Euripides Euripides () was a Greek tragedy, tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to ...

's ''

Alcestis Alcestis (; Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, ') or Alceste, was a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her life story was told by pseudo-Apollodorus in his '' Bibliotheca'', and a version of her death and return from t ...

'', ''

Andromache In Greek mythology, Andromache (; , ) was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. She was born and raised in the city of Cilician Thebe, over which her father ruled. The name means "man battler", "fighter of men" or "m ...

'', '' Helen'', and ''

Bacchae ''The Bacchae'' (; , ''Bakkhai''; also known as ''The Bacchantes'' ) is an ancient Greek tragedy, written by the Athenian playwright Euripides during his final years in Macedonia, at the court of Archelaus I of Macedon. It premiered posthum ...

'' (5th century BC): "πολλὰ δ᾽ ἀέλπτως κραίνουσι θεοί" (loosely translated, "the gods bring many matters to surprising ends").

Reception

The painting was exhibited at the 1864

Royal Academy summer exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, sc ...

. Lady Franklin was invited to the exhibition, but avoided the "offensive" painting. ''

The Art Journal ''The Art Journal'' was the most important British 19th-century magazine on art. It was founded in 1839 by Hodgson & Graves, print publishers, 6 Pall Mall, with the title ''Art Union Monthly Journal'' (or ''The Art Union''), the first issue of 7 ...

'' described its "poetry, pathos, and terror" and "tragic grandeur", the '' Athenaeum'' noted an "epic" quality, and the '' Saturday Review'' praised its "sublimity of sentiment". The painting was sold at auction to Thomas Holloway in 1881. It currently hangs in the picture gallery of

Urban myth

It is well-documented that students at Royal Holloway believe the painting to be cursed or haunted. A legend among students dating back to at least around the 1920s or 1930s, and still held in the 1980s, was that anyone sitting in front of the painting during an exam would fail it. A college tradition requires temporarily covering the painting with a

Union Jack The Union Jack or Union Flag is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. The Union Jack was also used as the official flag of several British colonies and dominions before they adopted their own national flags. It is sometimes a ...

when student examinations are ongoing. This originated with an incident during the 1970s where an exam invigilator hurriedly covered the painting with the first thing they could find that would be large enough, as a student refused to sit their exam by the uncovered painting. The legend of the bad luck painting later developed into an

that a student taking exams had committed suicide after looking at the painting, writing "The polar bears made me do it" onto their exam paper. There is, however, no university record of a death in the picture gallery. The college's curator said in a 2014 interview that "I've heard it was a girl, I've heard it was a boy, I've heard about three ifferentways that they killed themselves."

Notes

References

The Arctic Fantasies of Edwin Landseer and Briton Riviere: Polar Bears, Wilderness and Notions of the Sublime
Diana Donald. ''Tate Papers'' Issue 13, 1 April 2010.
"The cravings of nature": Landseer’s ''Man Proposes, God Disposes'' and the Franklin Expedition
Sophie Gilmartin, Royal Holloway, 2008

* ttps://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/archives/itemofthemonth/items/may2013.aspx Edwin Landseer, ''Man Proposes, God Disposes'', 1864 Laura MacCulloch, Royal Holloway, May 2013.
Sir Edwin Landseer's ''Man Proposes, God Disposes'': And the fate of Franklin
Andrew Moore, The ''British Art Journal'', Vol. 9, No. 3 (Spring 2009), pp. 32–37. {{DEFAULTSORT:Man Proposes, God Disposes 1864 paintings Paintings by Edwin Henry Landseer Paintings in Royal Holloway, University of London Paintings about death Polar bears in art British urban legends Curses Franklin's lost expedition Painting controversies Oil on canvas paintings Animal paintings London folklore