Gezicht op een cairn te Nova Zembla, mogelijk in de Kruisbaai c. 1880 - 1887

This graphite drawing of a cairn in Nova Zembla was created by Louis Apol, a Dutch painter known for his romantic winter landscapes. Apol made this sketch during an expedition on the Willem Barents, a steamship that retraced the famous voyage of Willem Barentsz, who sought the Northeast passage to Asia in the late 16th century. Barentsz tragically died during his third voyage, and his crew was stranded on Nova Zembla, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Apol's sketch, made centuries later, captures the stark beauty of the Arctic landscape and evokes the earlier expedition's themes of exploration, survival, and the human relationship with nature. Consider the weight of history imbued in this landscape, where the dreams of exploration turned into a struggle for survival against the unforgiving Arctic elements. The cairn, a man-made pile of stones, stands as a silent witness to both human ambition and vulnerability.