Carl (Jens Erik C.) Rasmussen (Danish 1841-1893)

Expedition To East Greenland
oil on canvas, initialed and dated lower right "JECR 1891"
Size: 21 ¾ h x 37 w in
J21151                              

This important painting depicts Captain Gustav Frederik Holm standing in the exploration boat in Hekla Harbour on Denmark Island, Greenland in 1884 during the Umiak Expedition. The view is in Scoresby Sound facing East with Jameson Peninsula in the distance. Captain Holm is standing in a “Konebaad”, a large vessel with sealskins stretched over a bone or wooden frame, large enough to carry up to 10 passengers including provisions. The portrait of Holm is partly modeled after a studio photograph of him.  

Captain Gustav Frederik Holm was a commander in the Danish Navy and participated in many explorations. He became distinguished for his expeditions and is best known for leading the Umiak Expedition from 1883-1885. He won many awards including gold medals from the Geography Society, Paris in 1891, and the Danish Geographical Society in 1895, as well as the Danish Order of Merit in 1909. He later became director of Danish pilots in 1912. Holm was accompanied on the expedition by junior leader Thomas Vilhelm Garde whose narratives of his explorations and surveys over the Greenland icecap were published and formed the foundation for the first complete description of the area’s waterways. Garde was awarded the Roquette medal by the Geography Society, Paris for his efforts and went on to become a commander in the Royal Danish Navy, rising to Rear Admiral in 1918.

The scientific Danish Umiak Expedition to the East Coast of Greenland took place from 1883 to 1885. Led by Captain Gustav Frederik Holm and Thomas Vilhelm Garde, the goals of the expedition included crossing the sea ice barrier on Greenland’s east coast, establishing a base with a meteorological station, exploring the Kaiser Franz Joseph Fjord, and attempting a westward crossing of the inland ice. Along the way the expedition was to gather scientific information, including information about wind and ice. The expedition spent their first winter in 1883 in Angmagssalik on the west coast near Nanortalkik. As it was covered in sea ice for most of the year and therefore difficult to access, the expedition did not leave for the east coast until early May of the following year. In September 1884 Holm claimed the coastal area of Southeastern Greenland from the Denmark Strait to the Arctic Circle for Denmark. The area was named King Christian IX Land in honour of the reigning Danish King and includes Greenland’s highest mountain range, the Watkins Range. 

The Umiak Expedition discovered eleven Inuit communities with 431 inhabitants and five ice fjords. These were documented by the Greenlandic missionary Johannes Hansen (called Hanserak) in his diary of sketches and writings which was reported in the first Greenlandic newspaper, as well as Den danske Konebaads-Expedition til Grønlands Østkyst 1883–85 (1889) and Om de geografiske Forhold i dansk Østgrønland (1889).

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