For 15 year-old Peter Rindisbacher, his parents' decision to emigrate from Switzerland to Canada in 1821 must have seemed an awfully big adventure. Landing at Hudson Bay the family made the gruelling journey to the Red River Settlement in Winnipeg where they set up home. Despite his youth, Peter was already a trained artist and he continued to paint in his adopted country producing depictions of his remarkable voyage and life in North America. One of his finest works – A Gentleman Travelling in a Dog Cariole in Hudson's Bay with an Indian Guide – is offered at Bonhams Travel and Exploration sale in London on Tuesday 14 September. Executed in 1824 when Rindisbacher was only 18, the work is estimated at £50,000-80,000.

In 1826 the Rindisbacher family moved to St. Louis, Missouri where Peter enjoyed a successful career as an artist until his untimely death in 1834. That same year, another painter, William Pope, set out for Canada from his home in Kent, England. Although cushioned by his family's wealth which allowed him to indulge his twin passions of painting and shooting, Pope too endured an arduous journey as recorded in his extensive journals. The fruits of this and many subsequent trips were highly detailed pictorial studies of Canadian birds and fish executed in watercolour, body colour and pen and ink. An archive containing 54 studies of birds and fish made by Pope between 1834-47 also appear in the Travel and Exploration sale. Estimated at £30,000-50,000, they come direct from descendants of the artist and are the first of his works ever to have been offered at auction. Pope eventually settled in Canada, near Port Ryerse, Ontario living there from 1859 until his death in 1902 at the great age of 92.

Bonhams picture specialist at Knightsbridge Leo Webster said: "These remarkable painters have, in their different ways, left an invaluable portrait of life in Canada during the early part of the 19th century. Rindisbacher's depictions of the culture of Canada's Native American population were in great demand during his brief lifetime and are increasingly sought after today. Pope, by contrast, never offered his work for sale and his drawings and watercolours were made for his own interest. The fact, however, that he is known as the Canadian Audubon, in reference to his revered contemporary the American naturalist and painter John James Audubon, speaks volumes about the quality of his eye. We are expecting a lot of interest in the work of both these artists"