Restless- and Homesickness

The maritime Belvedere itself contains traces of sea voyages to both polar regions. An oil painting of the ‘Second German North Pole Expedition’ (1869/70), organized by the geographer and cartographer August Petermann (1822–1878), is by Josef Langl. Although the pole was not discovered, the Kaiser-Franz-Joseph-Fjord was. It was also possible to explore and map previously unknown parts of the east coast of Greenland.

The ‘Endurance Expedition’ (1914–1917) by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874–1922) to the perpetual ice of the South Pole is the subject of the work “Winke, Winke” (Wave, Wave) by the artist group Mahony. The expedition failed but became widely known for the survival of all its members. The original photograph was first published in Shackleton’s book “South” in 1920. It shows him and five men trying to get help from South Georgia, eight hundred miles away, in a dinghy. Shackleton had to leave twenty-two of the expedition members waiting on Elephant Island.

We conclude our multiple circumnavigations with Alexander Rothaug’s “Ulysses (Longing for Home)” and Axl Leskoschek’s invalid skipper, who, ‘crouching on a bollard’, longs to get back out to sea.

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