Sakæus. 1819. First communication with the Natives of Prince Regents Bay, as Drawn by John Sackhouse and presented to Capt. Ross, Augt 10, 1818. Engraving in John Ross, A Voyage of Discovery: made under the orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty’s ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin’s Bay, and inquiring into the probability of a North-West Passage (London: John Murray). 29.2 x 42.7 cm. The University Library, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

Sakæus. 1819. First communication with the Natives of Prince Regents Bay, as Drawn by John Sackheouse and presented to Capt. Ross, Augt 10, 1818. Engraving in John Ross, A Voyage of Discovery: made under the orders of the Admiralty, in His Majesty's ships Isabella and Alexander, for the purpose of exploring Baffin's Bay, and inquiring into the probability of a North-West Passage (London: John Murray). 29.2 x 42.7 cm. The University Library, UiT The Arctic University of Norway. 

First Communication is based on a drawing Sakæus created during his participation as a paid interpreter on John Ross's expedition, which was sent to explore Baffin's Bay and look for a North-West Passage. Although the original drawing is lost, we can assume there is a close resemblance between it and the illustration published in Ross's narrative, A Voyage of Discovery (1819). In tune with current ideas about scientific method and accuracy, Ross's narrative emphasised the closeness between Sakæus's original and First Communication: ‘As he [Sakæus] never received any hint, or assistance, in this performance, a correct copy has been subjoined’. Ross further explained that First Communication, measuring 29.2 x 42.7 cm, was a reduced version of Sakæus’s original work. The large format Sakæus seems to have worked with while on the expedition not only suggests his original was as detailed as First Communication, but that he was serious about his artistic practice. Sakæus's composition testifies to his artistic talent, which the Scottish painter Alexander Nasmyth had identified while giving Sakæus art lessons during Sakæus’s stay in Edinburgh in from about January until March 1818. Ross corroborates this in his narrative by commenting on Sakæus’s ‘talents for historical composition’, how he practiced drawing by copying images of single figures and ships, and that his intention was to return to Kalaallit Nunaat after having mastered ‘the art of drawing’.   

Sakæus's First Communication recounts a meeting between Ross’s expedition and a group of Inughuit men at Qimusseriarsuaq, Northwest Kalaallit Nunaat, on 10 August 1818. It shows an Arctic landscape replete with whales and Indigenous figures against a background of snow-covered mountains overlapped in the right half of the composition by two gigantic, jagged, blue and grey icebergs. As if emerging from the large field of sea ice covering most of the composition, the icebergs are balanced by two vessels in the left middle ground and a group of men in the right foreground. This layered composition makes for a spacious view and gives the impression of overlooking a great distance. The eight figures in the bottom right corner reflect the theme of the image. There are two lines of people, one group placed in front of the other and both consisting of a mix of British explorers and Inughuit. From Ross's narrative, we learn that the two figures dressed in blue Navy uniforms and bicorne hats standing to the left in the front row are Ross and lieutenant William Edward Parry. The men are shown exchanging objects with the Inughuit (in brown and grey parkas). Sakæus is holding out a blue and white striped shirt, having already given a mirror to the Inughuit opposite him. The Inughuit standing across from Ross and Parry are handing over the tusk of a narwhal in return. What can First Communication tell us about the nature of this meeting?  

Read further in Ingeborg Høvik. 2017. 'Art History in the Contact Zone: Hans Zakæus's First Communication', in Sámi Art and Aesthetics, edited by Svein Aamold et.al. Aarhus University Press.

Essay by Ingeborg Høvik