Portrait of Sakæus, about 1792-1819. Inuit hunter, interpreter and artist. Alexander Nasmyth. 1818. Oil on panel. 29.9 x 22 cm. National Galleries of Scotland. Purchased 1981. PG 2488. Reproduced courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland

In early 1818, Sakæus sat for Alexander Nasmyth's portrait. From his studio in Edinburgh, Nasmyth painted Sakæus as a strong and rosy-cheeked, healthy-looking Inuit hunter upon a dramatic background of unruly clouds. With a focused gaze extending beyond the frame and into the distance, the hunter is firmly gripping his harpoon and ropes with both hands, ready to attack the animal (a seal?) that may show itself to him.   

A young Inuit hunter from Kalaallit Nunaat, Sakæus's sitting for the portrait resulted in a friendship that lasted until Sakæus's untimely death in February 1819.  

Born in 1792, Sakæus was 24 years old when he left Ilulissat (Jakobshavn) for Edinburgh onboard a Scottish whaler in August 1816. He stayed in Edinburgh until the spring of 1817, and made a living by performaning in his kayak in the sea outside Leith harbour. He then returned to Ilulissat, but decided to travel back to Scotland again that autumn. Early in the new year of 1818, Sakæus met Nasmyth on the streets of Leith. While Nasmyth's initial interest was in painting him, Sakæus's personality and skills at drawing soon prompted the artist to offer lessons in art and drawing. In the summer of 1818, the Admiralty hired Sakæus to serve as interpreter and artist on captain John Ross's expedition to find a Northwest Passage. When they returned to London in the early autumn, the Admiralty – impressed by Sakæus's work – decided to support his further education. Their intention was that he would work for them in the future. Sakæus agreed to this arrangement and returned to Edinburgh to resume his life there. He took up drawing again with Nasmyth, and began exchanging lessons in Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic) for instruction in English with a student in theology. Beyond this, he ‘took much pleasure in walking about, and paying visits', enjoyed playing the flute, dancing and telling stories, 'modelling' and carving kayaks. Some months later, in February 1819, Sakæus passed away and was buried in a cemetery in Edinburgh. His friends arranged the funeral and ensured that his possessions were shipped to his descendants in Ilulissat.  

Arguably, the nature and terms of Sakæus's stay in Edinburgh informed Nasmyth's representation of him. The unique circumstances of Sakæus's self-initiated travel to and stay in Scotland was characterised by social and geographical mobility. Unlike the many Indigenous travellers (enslaved Africans, for example) whose mobility was forced and bodies grossly exploited in this period, Sakæus arrived in a social environment that supported his individuality, confidence and skills. Although we don't know what he looked like, the portrait is in tune with others by Nasmyth (including several of the Scottish poet Robert Burns), wherein his sitters are elevated through a visual language of classicism and romanticism. Employing the genre of personal portraiture rather than scientific/ethnographic imaging, it seems Nasmyth tried to capture Sakæus's physical likeness, skills and personality in the painting, as the artist experienced them through personal contact with the sitter. 

Essay by Ingeborg Høvik