Portrait of Roald Amundsen by Calum Colvin

Portrait of Roald Amundsen created by Scottish artist Calum Colvin who combines photography, painting and installation. Calum created this piece by photographing an interior scene of a base camp depot containing all the equipment needed for a polar sledging journey. He then painted a portrait of Amundsen onto of this image.

Born in Borge Norway, Amundsen served on several Arctic expeditions in the late 1880s, including the first to survive an Arctic winter. In 1903 he commanded an expedition to traverse the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and pacific Oceans.Roald then planned to try and reach the North Pole however when he heard that Robert Pearys claims to have already accomplished this, he changed his plans at short notice to attempt the South Pole. He was to achieve this on 14 December 1911 becoming the first to do so and beating Scotts party by 11 days.

In 1926, he joined Umberto Nobile aboard the airship Norge and flew over the North Pole, thus becoming the first person to reach both poles. In 1928 Amundsen disappeared while flying on a rescue mission over the Arctic; no wreckage of his aircraft was ever found.This portraits of Amundsen is painted onto the interior of his base-camp depot and contains all the equipment needed for a polar sledging journey.

Calum Colvin is a Scottish artist whose work combines photography, painting and installation. He has widely exhibited his work both national and international for over thirty years. Calum is also Head of Contemporary Art Practice at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, Dundee.