A half-length portrait, facing slightly to the right, with the body left, showing Larsen in the uniform of a sergeant in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He is leaning against a boat aboard the ‘St Roch’. The painting a second version of one presented to Larsen by the citizens of Vancouver in 1960, which was taken from a photograph of him in 1944.
Henry Asbjørn Larsen was born in Norway but emigrated to Canada, becoming a British citizen in 1912 and a Canadian citizen in 1947. He joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 1928. An experienced seaman, Larsen joined the RCMP vessel ‘St Roch’ as a mate on its maiden voyage in the Arctic Sea in 1928. Once in Arctic, Larsen was appointed captain and commanded the vessel for some 20 years. In 1940, the vessel was ordered from the western to the eastern Arctic. The ‘St Roch’ completed the voyage in 1942 after 28 months a sea, much of it spent locked in the ice. Larsen and his crew were first to make the north-west passage from west to east.