Back accompanied John Franklin on his first overland expedition (1819-1822) in search of the Northwest Passage. Their voyage started in York Factory on Hudson Bay and passed through present-day northern Alberta and Saskatchewan before turning north for the Arctic Ocean. As one of the expedition's artists, Back produced two sketchbooks of landscapes, portraits, and maps. In this watercolour of two rival trading forts set against a frozen lake, Back evokes a vast, lonely landscape. The two forts sit as welcoming beacons to weary explorers travelling through what was widely perceived at the time as an inhospitable terrain.