Habit of a Fisherman of Greenland in 1626

by Thomas Jefferys

In an almost documentary-style fashion, this painting gives us a vivid insight into life on the ice of seventeenth-century Earth. The Habit of a Fisherman of Greenland is not simply a depiction of native costume but a celebration of human engineering and ingenuity in overcoming the Arctic elements.

The native wears authentic Inuit seal skin clothing specifically designed to make him float and to be warm. The artist takes great pains in detailing every seam of the parka (anorak) and high waisted pants which the man wears, representing an advanced culture surviving and thriving through the era of the "Little Ice Age". The fisherman is shown standing on the edge of a jagged floe, holding the implements of survival: the harpoon and bladder float.

The Habits of a Fisherman of Greenland is an important depiction of an indigenous culture far ahead of their time before the European age of discovery.