Lot 97: EDUARDO DE MARTINO (ITALIAN, 1838-1912) The Stella Polare-Duke of the

EDUARDO DE MARTINO (ITALIAN, 1838-1912) The Stella Polare-Duke of the Abruzzi’s expedition to the North Pole oil on canvas 28 x 38.4cm (11 x 15 1/8in).

Prince Luigi Amedeo, the Duke of the Abruzzi, was born in 1873 during his father’s brief reign as King Amedeo of Spain and while his Grandfather, Victor Emmanuel II, still reigned as the first King of Italy. It would be in the Italian Alps where his passion for mountain exploration would begin, conquering the Zmutt ridge of the Matterhorn at the age of twenty one. He would go on to become one of the preeminent explorers of his time, well known for making the first complete ascent of Mount St. Elias in Alaska and his climb on K2 via a route which now bears his name. In 1899 the Prince organised an expedition to the North Pole, via Christiania (modern day Oslo) where he acquired an old whaling ship which he renamed Stella Polare. The twenty men of the expedition set up a winter camp on Rudolph Island in Franz Joseph Land and planned to set out for the pole on dog sleds at the end of the winter night. During the long winter the Duke unfortunately lost two fingers to frostbite and so was not able to go for the pole with the sleds. In his absence Captain Umberto Cagni took the lead and the expedition reached latitude 86° 34’, setting a new record. Prince Luigi Amedeo would go on to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Navy during the World War I and later establish a village in Italian Somaliland where he died in March 1933. A larger version of the present work hangs in the Naval Academy at Livorno.