Pick of the Week: Back after 11 months locked in an icy prison

THE appeal of this 5 x 7in (13 x 17cm) watercolour lies not in its technical skill but in its subject matter and the name of the amateur artist: the explorer Sir George Back (1796-1878). Although it is neither dated nor inscribed, this hitherto unknown sketch shows Back’s ship, the converted bomb vessel HMS Terror, stranded in the pack ice of the ‘Frozen Strait’ during the long Arctic winter of September 1836 to July 1837. The expedition had intended to map the last sections of the uncharted coast of North America.