Beyond Man's Footsteps

A polar bear where no one has walked

A lone polar bear stands on an icy ridge, looking out over a frozen wilderness as the sun sinks red on the horizon. The title, Beyond Man’s Footsteps, says it all: this is a world untouched by people.

Briton Rivière painted it in 1894. It belongs to Tate, London.

A small white figure on the ice

The bear is tiny against the scale of the landscape, pale against pale. It stands still, as if surveying its kingdom.

Peaks of ice and a low sun

Behind, jagged ice peaks rise in the cold light.

At the left, the red sun touches the horizon. Rivière used a narrow range of blues, greys and pinks to convey silence and cold.

Questions about Beyond Man’s Footsteps

What does it show?

A polar bear in a vast Arctic landscape at sunset.

Where is it?

Tate, London.

What does the title mean?

The scene lies beyond the reach of human beings.

When was it painted?

In 1894.

Sources and image credit

• Wikimedia Commons: Beyond Man’s Footsteps (Tate N01577)

Public-domain reproduction of Beyond Man’s Footsteps (1894). Detail images are crops of the same image; no reconstruction or upscaling.