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
