James Cook (1728–1779), amongst the greatest of all maritime explorers, closed the yawning gap in the map of New Holland when he sailed up its eastern seaboard between April and August 1770. On the first of his three voyages of discovery in the Pacific he made meticulous charts of the bays, rivers and islands he passed, and a great number of places in eastern Australia are still known by the names he gave them that fateful autumn and winter. Before the Endeavour sailed away, he took possession of the entire east coast, which he named New South Wales, in the name of His Majesty, King George the Third. Cook was almost continually at sea between 1768 and 1779, scrutinising vast areas that had previously been only tentatively investigated, and charting them with extraordinary accuracy. Accounts produced from his voyages provided Europeans with their first glimpse of the culture, wildlife and geography of lands as diverse as Tahiti and Alaska, and as a result of measures he took to raise standards of hygiene and nutrition on board his ships, there was an appreciable improvement in the health of future British seamen. Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii, on 14 February 1779, after having left and then returned to make essential repairs.
This is one of three surviving portraits of Cook by John Webber RA (c. 1752-1793). London-born Webber was apprenticed in 1767 to the Swiss landscape artist Johann Aberli, with whom he spent three years before continuing his studies in Paris. He returned to London at 24, and was admitted to study at the Royal Academy, where he first exhibited in 1776. Daniel Solander, the Swedish naturalist who sailed on the Endeavour with Cook and Banks, admired Webber's works at this first exhibition. Knowing that no official artist had been appointed for Cook's imminent voyage, he recommended Webber. It was Webber's job to make drawings and paintings of people and objects encountered on the voyage of the Resolution; to 'observe the genius, temper, disposition of the natives… showing them every kind of civility and regard'. On this voyage first European contact was established with Hawaiian and British Columbian Indigenous people, and the Resolution's crew were amongst the first Europeans to meet the original inhabitants of Alaska and Kamchatka. The illustrations Webber made were included in the three- volume official record of the voyage, and boosted its commercial success. In London, Webber was often visited by people keen to hear tales of the tragic journey and to see his drawings and curiosities. He exhibited works relating to the expedition at the Royal Academy, and made a modest income from reworking drawings for sale. In his posthumous portrait of Cook, Webber depicted him in the glove he customarily wore to conceal the scars from an injury he sustained in North America in 1764, when a horn of powder he was holding exploded.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Purchased 2000 by the Commonwealth Government with the generous assistance of Robert Oatley AO and John Schaeffer AO 2000
Captain James Cook RN, seventeen eighty two, John Webber
This painting, oil on canvas, of Captain James Cook, is presented in an ornate gilt frame, with the carved leaf pattern.
Cook is depicted from upper thigh to the crown of his head. He poses out of doors. Behind him moody rain clouds are descending, tumbling from the top right of the picture, angling down past his shoulders.
At his right hip, a hint of breaking waves, and adjacent to the left hip, a muddy brown rocky outcrop and foliage.
Cook's mousy medium length hair is swept clear of his high forehead, into a ribbon tied at his nape. At his ears, almost like flaps either side of his face, a portion of his hair is drawn up and out, perhaps of fashion of the time. As his body is angled, so is his face and his left ear remains out of view. He has dark eyes and brows, a pale complexion with high colour in his cheekbones and across his nose. His lips are drawn together, neither pursed nor smiling. His expression watchful, tired.
A white cravat completely encases his neck. His white shirt in the style of the time is bedecked in numerous yellow gold buttons that finish below his hips, and the material parts at his groin to reveal white pants.
Encasing his torso, a rich cobalt coat with thick gold embroidered detail at his neck, along the lapels and from forearm to wrist. His right elbow is cocked, right gloved hand holds the material of his coat away from his shirt.
Cook's standing at an angle to us, his left shoulder partly obscured behind him by the angle of his body. The bare fingers of his left hand protrude, index finger flexed and drooping slightly as though the tail end of a gesture.
His left hand is close to the hilt of a sword on his left hip. Thick woven cord making an arc from the rounded end of the handle, to another point hidden in the fabric of his shirt.
Audio description written by Jody Holdback and Emma Bedford and voiced by Rory Walker
Mr Robert Oatley AO (7 portraits supported)
Mr John Schaeffer AO (2 portraits supported)
Commonwealth of Australia (1 portrait supported)
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