The Arctic Council planning a search for Sir John Franklin, 1851, oil painting by Stephen...

The Arctic Council was founded in the mid-1830s as an advisory group to filter proposals for attempts on the North-West Passage. Sir William Edward Parry, Sir James Clark Ross, Sir Francis Beaufort, Sir George Back, Frederick William Beechey, Edward Joseph Bird, Sir Edward Sabine and Sir John Richardson are depicted in Pearce's group portrait as well as John Barrow Jnr. and William Baillie Hamilton, and in the paintings visible on the rear wall: Sir John Franklin, James Fitzjames and Sir John Barrow himself. The scene depicted shows the council in discussion about their most important project: the search for Franklin and his expedition. The influence that Lady Jane Franklin had on the protracted search for her husband is acknowledged in the two letters on the table from American supporters of her quest: one from Henry Grinnell, the second from Edwin de Haven, both addressed to Lady Franklin. Franklin was a British Royal Navy officer who disappeared on his last expedition