A PAINTING by a famous Scottish explorer and nationalist is to be sold at auction for thousands of pounds.
William Burn Murdoch was one of the few artists involved in the founding of the Zoological Society of Scotland.
His painting, The Last Cartridge, is likely to be a fictionalised encounter between a polar bear and a whaler with the title alluding to the “adventure fiction” which was popular at the time.
Murdoch himself joined his friend Dr William Speirs Bruce on a Dundee whaling expedition to Antarctica in 1892 and he is understood to be the first person to have played the bagpipes in the Antarctic.
The voyage allowed him to make pictures for his book “Edinburgh to the Antarctic” and he later “Modern Whaling and Polar Bear Hunting” in 1917.
The artist was also instrumental in the capture of Starboard – the second polar bear to enter Edinburgh Zoo in 1913.
At the same auction, two Banksy prints are up for sale at an auction in Scotland – with the works expected to fetch up to £20,000 each.
The works, which are included in the Winter Two Day Fine Art & Antiques Auction at Great Western Auctions in Glasgow on December 6 and 7.
Contemporary street artist Banksy is known for his satirical street art with an exhibition on his work recently held in Glasgow.
Prints of two pieces will be up for sale at the auction – Laugh Now and Trolley.
Laugh Now depicts a downcast chimpanzee wearing a sandwich board which reads: “Laugh Now, but one day we’ll be in charge.”
The prints are signed in pencil by the artist.
The second work – Trolley – depicts three “hunters” holding spears who appear to be stalking a herd of shopping trolleys.
