Original Artwork | Oil & Acrylic on Canvas | H 1215mm x W 1825mm
+ All purchases of original artwork come with a Certificate of Authenticity and a free Lucky Smith Studio cap!!
 
Featured Exhibitions:
Under 30s Eat Free (2025 - Solo Exhibition)
 
About the Artwork:
Peter Freuchen was a Danish explorer active at the turn of the 20th century. He was on the third expedition to the Arctic - his team leader Robert Peary seeking the glory of being the first to reach the North Pole. Freuchen notably:
 
As a medical student helped resuscitate and rehabilitate a shipyard worker who experienced blunt-force trauma to the head. By medical records, the first full resuscitation of a dead man where the patient recouped complete brain functionality.
Was first to map the weather conditions of the Arctic, spending 9 months in isolation in a small 25sqm weather station which he shared with 9 sled dogs and slept in, nursing a loaded rifle in case one of the continually preying polar bears or wolves managed to break into the shack.
Controversially bore and raised two children with a native Inuk woman.
Learnt the language of the native Uummannaq (Greenland natives) and established trading systems with their people, such as exchanging guns and ammunition for furs. The Uummannaq used the weapons for hunting, and the furs were sold to tailors in Denmark.
Survived catching the devastating global influenza pandemic known as the Spanish Flu, where he came close to death, losing most of his body mass. The 6ft 5in Freuchen was described by a friend as being “thin as a reed”.
 
Freuchen spent upwards of 5 years in Greenland exploring and mapping the treacherous conditions of the Arctic. He connected with and documented the cultures of the natives, and braved the hellish landscape while sled dogs and colleagues were taken by blizzards, starvation, or falling through thin ice into 200 metre ravines, where the only humane thing to do was to try shoot them before they froze or drowned in the water.
 
He experienced all this before the age of thirty.
 
In contrast, while I read his biography I received a call from my mother, notifying me Bupa has updated their policies and I can remain on the family health plan until I am thirty-two. This moment is what inspired the theme ‘Under 30s Eat Free’ – the starkest contrast between generational differences and the apparent mollycoddling and distrust of the youth today with managing important tasks in the pursuit of progress.
 
This painting depicts Peter Freuchen clad in caribou skins and holding the Danish flag looking over two modern thirty year olds, who sit in the snow of the North Pole playing with Pokémon cards, a representation of the juvenile state in which under thirty year olds are held and find comfort in.