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

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. However, his best-known works are the lion sculptures at the bas ...

. 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 ( or ) is a polar regions of Earth, polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenla ...

after 1845. The painting is in the collection of

Royal Holloway, University of London Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

, and is the subject of superstitious

urban myth An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

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 hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

s among the scattered wreckage of the expedition – a telescope, the tattered remains of a red ensign, 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 immigrant Italian scholar Gabriele Rossetti and his wife Frances Rossetti ''née'' Polidor ...

called "the saddest of '' membra disjecta''". The image shows humanity and civilization defeated by "

nature, red in tooth and claw The poem "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1850) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, is an elegy for his Cambridge friend Arthur Henry Hallam, who died of cerebral haemorrhage at the age of twenty-two years, in Vienna in 1833. As a sustained exercise in tetrametric ...

", 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 and Arctic explorer. After serving in wars against Napoleonic France and the United States, he led two expeditions into the Canadian Arctic and through ...

's expedition in 1845 to explore the

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

. The 134 men of Franklin's expedition left

Greenhithe 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, Greenhithe's waterfront on the estuary of the ri ...

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 Bay ...

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 (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

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

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

, and he found some dead bodies on

King William Island King William Island (french: Île du Roi-Guillaume; previously: King William Land; iu, Qikiqtaq, script=Latn) 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 ...

. 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 well documented, b ...

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 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

's 1824 painting ''

The Sea of Ice ''The Sea of Ice'', (German: ''Das Eismeer'') (1823–1824), is an oil painting that depicts a shipwreck in the Arctic by the German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. Before 1826 this painting was known as ''The Polar Sea''.Heuer, p. 169 ...

'', and

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

's ''

The Icebergs ''The Icebergs'' is an 1861 oil painting by the American landscape artist Frederic Edwin Church. It was inspired by his 1859 voyage to the North Atlantic around Newfoundland and Labrador. Considered one of Church's "Great Pictures"—measuring ...

'', 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 Imitation of Christ'', by Thomas à Kempis, is a Christian devotional book first composed in Medieval Latin as ''De Imitatione Christi'' ( 1418–1427).''An introductory Dictionary of Theology and Religious studies'', by Orlando O. Esp� ...

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

Thomas à Kempis Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380 – 25 July 1471; german: Thomas von Kempen; nl, Thomas van Kempen) was a German-Dutch canon regular of the late medieval period and the author of ''The Imitation of Christ'', published anonymously in Latin in the N ...

. 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 (a.k.a. the Enterprise of England, es, Grande y Felicísima Armada, links=no, lit=Great and Most Fortunate Navy) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aris ...

. A similar phrase appears in the concluding lines of

Lucian Lucian of Samosata, '; la, Lucianus Samosatensis ( 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore ...

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

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

'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 (; grc, Ἀνδρομάχη, ) 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 ...

'', ''

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

'', and ''

Bacchae ''The Bacchae'' (; grc-gre, Βάκχαι, ''Bakchai''; 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. ...

'' (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 Athenaeum may refer to: Books and periodicals * ''Athenaeum'' (German magazine), a journal of German Romanticism, established 1798 * ''Athenaeum'' (British magazine), a weekly London literary magazine 1828–1921 * ''The Athenaeum'' (Acadia U ...

'' noted an "epic" quality, and the '' Saturday Review'' praised its "sublimity of sentiment". The painting was sold at auction to

Thomas Holloway : Thomas Holloway (22 September 180026 December 1883) was an English patent medicine vendor and philanthropist. Early life Holloway was born in Devonport, Plymouth, Devon, the eldest son of Thomas and Mary Holloway (née Chellew), who at the ...

in 1881. It currently hangs in the picture gallery of

Urban myth

It is well-documented that students at Royal Holloway believe the painting is haunted. It comes from the

that a student sitting their exams in the 1920s or 30s stabbed a pencil into their eye, writing "The polar bears made me do it" on their exam paper, in reference to the painting, and committing

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

. There is, however, no university record of a death in the picture gallery. A legend among students dating back to at least the 1960s is that anyone sitting in front of the painting during an exam will fail it. Due to the perception that the painting is a bad omen, there is a college tradition that 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. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...

when student examinations are ongoing. This is due to 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.

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. {{Edwin Landseer 1864 paintings Paintings by Edwin Henry Landseer Paintings in the collection of Royal Holloway, University of London Paintings about death Polar bears in art Urban legends Curses Franklin's lost expedition Painting controversies