Nelson and the Bear

Nelson and the Bear is an 1809 painting by the British artist Richard Westall. It depicts an incident in 1773 involving Horatio Nelson, then a fifteen-year-old midshipman accompanying a polar expedition to try and find the Northeast Passage. Nelson and a friend were at one point attacked by a polar bear. Nelson's musket misfired and he reversed it to try to beat the bear off with the butt end. His life was likely saved when the ice split in two separating him from the animal. In the background is the bomb vessel HMS Carcass on which Nelson was a crewmember. One of the ship's guns is seen firing in an attempt to scare off the bear. It omits the presence of Nelson's comrade, showing him confidently standing up to the bear alone.

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