Barbara Rae: The Northwest Passage

In 2015 Scottish painter Barbara Rae (born 1943) traveled to Greenland on the trail of her namesake, the surgeon and explorer Dr John Rae. Like the artist, John Rae came from Scotland; in 1846, he traveled to the Arctic, where his cooperation and collaboration with the Inuit―almost unheard of at the time―allowed him to discover the fate of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition, and to confirm the existence of the Northwest Passage. Hiking, sketching and creating paintings in her cabin among the icebergs, Barbara Rae stepped into the snowshoes of John Rae. Through her deft handling of color and line, the frozen tundras of the Arctic jump from the page into life. This publication takes the reader on a journey of discovery from Scotland to the Arctic and back again.