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C1784
A Young Woman of Otaheite, Dancing.
Artist:
Rare c.18th engraving from the official British Admiralty sanctioned edition of the accounts of Captain Cook’s third and final voyage depicting a dance at Matavia Bay, Tahiti. All other copies made of this image by other publishers are usually smaller … Read Full Description
$A 350
S/N: CK03E-PI-SOC-2069–223489
(C015)
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Details
Full Title:
A Young Woman of Otaheite, Dancing.
Date:
C1784
Artist:
Condition:
In good condition, with wide margins.
Technique:
Copper engraving.
Image Size:
230mm
x 280mm
Paper Size:
405mm
x 545mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1784
Description:
Rare c.18th engraving from the official British Admiralty sanctioned edition of the accounts of Captain Cook’s third and final voyage depicting a dance at Matavia Bay, Tahiti.
All other copies made of this image by other publishers are usually smaller and on inferior quality paper.
Cook arrived at Matavia Bay, Tahiti on 24th August and stayed until 30 September, 1777. On their visit Cook and his men witnessed a number of heiva’s.
‘We landed in the evening and walk’d through a great part of Parre, a pleasant fertile district near Mattavy, meeting our road with a kind of private Heeva or amusement, which consisted of about a hundred of the inhabitants of the neighbourhood who wer[e] sitting in a house and in the midst of them two women with an old man behind, each beating very gently upon a drum, and the women at intervals singing in a softer manner than I have ever heard at their other diversions.’ Cook, Journals III, 2, 985.
From: Cook & King, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, for making Discoveries in the Northern Hemisphere. Performed under the Direction of Captains Cook, Clerke, and Gore, in His Majesty’s Ships the Resolution and Discovery; in the Years 1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, and 1780.
References:
Beddie, M. Bibliography of Captain James Cook, RN,FRS, Circumnavigator. Sydney 1970 1543 & 1743-6, p.339.
Joppien,R. & Smith, B. The Art of Captain Cook’s Voyages; Vol. I, II & III. Melbourne 1985-1987 3.10A, ill.p.272.
Forbes, D. Hawaiian National Bibliography 1780- 1830. Honolulu /Sydney, 1999/2003 62; cf.
Carter, J. & Muir, P. Printing and the Mind of Man London 1983 223.
Sabin, J. A Dictionary of Books Relating to America, from its Discovery to the Present Time. New York. (1936) 1967. 16250.
Hill, J. The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages. San Diego 1974 321.
Collections:
State Library New South Wales: CALL NUMBERS RB/F990A/9
State Library Victoria: RARELT 910.41 C773VS
State Library South Australia: Special Collection: 919 C771
John Webber (1752 - 1793)
Born in London in 1752, the son of a Swiss sculptor. He received his early artistic training in London before continuing his studies in Paris under Jean-Georges Wille, where he developed the precise draughtsmanship that later distinguished his work. By the early 1770s he had returned to Britain and established himself as a promising young artist.
In 1776 Webber was appointed official artist to James Cook's 3rd and final voyage of exploration. The expedition, undertaken in HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, sought a northern passage between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. During the voyage, which lasted until 1780, Webber produced an extensive visual record of the regions visited, including the Pacific Islands, the northwest coast of North America, and parts of eastern Asia. His drawings documented landscapes, settlements, flora, fauna, and the inhabitants encountered by the expedition, particularly in places such as Tahiti, Hawai‘i, and Nootka Sound. Webber was present during the final stages of the voyage, including the events surrounding Cook’s death at Kealakekua Bay in 1779. His work from this period includes some of the earliest European visual representations of Hawaiian society. Throughout the expedition he worked under demanding conditions, often producing rapid sketches in the field which were later refined into finished compositions.
Following his return to Britain, Webber prepared many of his drawings for engraving for the official account of the voyage, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean, published in 1784. These images played a central role in shaping European understanding of the Pacific and its peoples. His work combined empirical observation with the compositional conventions of late eighteenth-century European art, and it contributed to the visual culture of exploration. Webber exhibited at the Royal Academy in London and continued to produce paintings and drawings based on his travels, as well as other subjects. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1785, reflecting his professional standing. His later work included both exhibition pieces and commissioned works, though he remained best known for his Pacific imagery.
John Webber died in London in 1793 at the age of forty-one. His surviving drawings and paintings are held in major collections, including the British Museum and other institutions, and they remain an important visual record of Cook’s Third Voyage.
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