The North-West Passage

The North-West Passage of 1874, now in the National Gallery's collection, is one of the most celebrated and explicitly patriotic works of Victorian painting. An aged naval officer sits in a cabin surrounded by charts and maps, deep in thought; behind him a young woman reads aloud, while the metaphorical and actual challenge of finding the North-West Passage — the sea route through the Arctic from the Atlantic to the Pacific — hangs over the whole scene. The picture was created in the aftermath of multiple failed and fatal expeditions, including those of Sir John Franklin, whose ships disappeared in the Arctic in 1845. The painting channelled a powerful national mood: grief for lost explorers combined with pride in the spirit of sacrifice and the determination to persist. Millais subtitled it 'It can be done and England ought to do it,' a phrase of ringing imperial confidence.

Oil on canvas, the picture is richly detailed in the nautical and domestic elements — charts, ropes, the texture of the aged officer's face — while the background achieves a carefully managed chiaroscuro that focuses light on the two central figures. Millais's modelling of the aged sailor's face is among his finest achievements in character portraiture.