A surprising end is certainly the subject matter of this cursed painting. Like many during his time, Sir Edwin Landseer was fascinated by the disappearance of the Franklin Expedition in 1845. A British expedition determined find the famed (and ever elusive) Northwest Passage, the crew, and both ships, the HMS Terror and the HMS Erebus, disappeared without a trace in the Arctic. The remains of two crew members were found in 1859 by John Rae of the Hudson Bay Company (he was guided by accounts from the local Inuit tribes). The bodies bore the tell-tale marks of cannibalism.

 Sir Edwin Landseer did not portray that unseemly part of the Franklin expedition. But he did portray another predator that may have consumed the unfortunate castaways. And it was this scenario that caused an uproar in Victorian England. William Michael Rossetti decried it as “the saddest of membra disjecta” which portrayed humanity defeated by “nature, red in tooth and claw”. The painter certainly didn’t shy away from the gruesome details. One bear tears at the tattered flag of a ship, while another gnaws on a bone from a ribcage nearby. While some critics lauded the painting for its “poetry, pathos, and terror” and “tragic grandeur”, others did not appreciate such a graphic portrayal of the expedition’s end. Lady Franklin, who for years organized expeditions to search for her missing husband, refused to look at what she called the “offensive” painting. Rumors started circulating in London society that the artist of Man Proposes, God Disposes had lost his mind.

Over time, the legend grew. After the artist’s death, the painting was sold at auction in 1881 and made its way to the University of London, where it hangs in Royal Halloway Hall. It was there, in the 1920’s and 30’s, that students taking exams began to talk about the strange pull of the painting. Rumors began to circulate that anyone who gazed into the eyes of the polar bears “may suddenly be seized by some malevolent force and may subsequently harm themselves in some way.”

Harm themselves or others…

In the 1970’s, one student even refused to take their exam sitting next to the “cursed” painting. Dr. Laura MacCullough, who was the college art curator at the time, said the registrar wanted to get the exam underway so she “ran off and tried to find the biggest thing that she could to cover the picture.” She wound up using the Union Jack to hide the offending polar bears. It seemed to relax all the students, not just the unfortunate soul sitting near it. Every year since then, the painting has been covered to protect the students.

Better to cover it up than tempt fate, right?

Man Proposes, God Disposes Covered During Exams at the University of London

HMS Terror (Above) and a diver exploring the HMS Erebus (Below)

Want more speculation about what “really” happened to the Franklin Expedition?

Try the AMC series The Terror for some otherworldly horror.