Alexander Mcdonald

[anteros_lmc]

I came across this astonishingly beautiful portrait among the National Maritime Museum's recent acquisitions a couple of weeks ago, and I've been entranced by it ever since.


This is Assistant Surgeon Alexander Mcdonald. According to the NNM catalogue entry:

Alexander Mcdonald was born at Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire, on 13 September 1817. He graduated as licentiate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh in 1838. In 1840 he served on an whaling vessel commanded by Captain William Penny and wrote an account of his experiences A Narrative of Some Passages in the History of Eenoolooapik, a young Eskimau (pub. Fraser & Co and J. Hoff, Edinburgh). Between 2 Sept 1841 and 5 March 1845 he served as surgeon on board HMS Belvidera in the Mediterranean.

Sadly it was Mcdonald's next commission that was to distinguish him. In 1845 at the age of 28 he was appointed as Assistant Surgeon on HMS Terror in Sir John Franklin's last expedition. Tragically it appears that Mcdonald was one of the party that made it to the mouth of the Back River where they starved to death and their remains were later found by the Inuit. When McDonald's fellow Scot John Rae finally started to piece together the fate of the Franklin expedition in 1856, one of the artefacts he traded from the Inuit in Repulse Bay was a silver fork engraved with the monogram "A McD". Mcdonald's fate was confirmed in 1859 by F. L. McClintock when he recovered a Prize medal from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, which had been presented to Mcdonald in 1838, and which had come into the possession of the Boothian Peninsula Inuit.

Both the fork and the medal are in the collections of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, where they were joined in 2008 by this stunning portrait, which has just made its appearance in the new online catalogue. The portrait is believed to have been painted just before or after Mcdonald's 1840's whaling voyage, and although the painter is unknown, he as captured an image of Alexander Mcdonald that, once seen, is quite unforgettable.

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

The face is haunting. Almost as if he is looking into his unspeakable future.

It must have been heartbreaking for him to try to keep those men alive.

I have a horrified can't-look-away thing with the Franklin expedition. It reads like an invented tale of human hubris. (And I spent years half in love with Captain Crozier.)

Also the painting is fabulous, just as art. Handsome and very poised young man.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

It's an amazing portrait isn't it? And you're right about their being something haunting about his face. I keeping going back and looking at it again and again. It's awful to think of what he must have seen and suffered.

I have a horrified can't-look-away thing with the Franklin expedition.
I know exactly what you mean, though I haven't been able to bring myself to read Criozier's biography.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

He looks very familiar. I'm not sure whether it's someone I know in RL or an actor, though... I will have to stare at him for a while.

I like the windswept hair look. That's very contemporary - at least in my part of the world. My friend N. noted not long ago that all young men look like Willoughby these days, because they wear their hair slightly longer and comb it forward.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

There is something quite modern about the way the painting is done, with the indistinct background, and the detail of his face and hands. The hands in particular are really riveting. hey are big capable looking hands for such a slim guy.

The background reminds me of Van Gogh. (Silly to say maybe but it does, with those swirls around his head.)

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

I thought that too - such a slim and slight frame and such strong surgeons hands

so hard not to read in his eyes his yet unknown future though !

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Yes, he looks like a very slight young man doesn't he? Easy to believe those hands belong to a naval surgeon though.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Not silly at all. The swirly background and the style of the composition made me think of Munch, or even some of Klimt's early portraits.

His hands are very distracting bit it's his gaze that transfixes me.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Have you figured out who he reminds you off yet? If it's someone you know then I am very jealous. He's rather gorgeous with his windswept golden hair.

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I haven't! I don't even know whether it's someone I know or an actor. The eyes are so familiar, I feel like it should be obvious, and yet he eludes me.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

He has really astonishing skin. With those warm brown eyes and that complexion he must have admirers swooning at his feet!

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

And such soft-looking hair.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

He has very Scottish colouring! I love the contrast between his deep brown eyes and golden hair. Blue eyes tend to be much more common with that colouring. I'd certainly be happy to swoon at his feet!

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Have you placed him yet? I'm very curious to know if there is someone walking around today who looks like this!

Or perhaps he just has one of those faces that appears instantly memorable?

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

I have not. Perhaps it is as you say, just one of those faces or wishful thinking.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I'm still wishing....

[donnaimmaculata.livejournal.com]

Perhaps you could hunt down his great-great-great-grandson? And then we could collectively stalk him.