The Death of Captain Cook
by John Webber, Francesco Bartolozzi (engraver) and William Byrne (engraver)
engraving	(sheet: 50.3 cm x 60.4 cm, image: 42.3 x 57.7)
Cook's assassination in Kealakekua Bay, Hawai'i, in 1779 produced an explosion of commentary, both in eighteenth-century popular culture and in twentieth-century historical scholarship. Cook had enjoyed a mostly warm welcome from Hawaiians when he revisited their islands in late 1778. When he had to return unexpectedly in February 1779, however, due to a broken mast, the reception was different. Cook may have been aware that earlier he had benefited from arriving during the carnivalesque season of peace called Makahiki. During this season, where all is upside down, 'strangers' are afforded the privileges of 'natives.' Even if Cook knew that his return in February now coincided with the new season of war, he may not have realised how deeply implicated his ships had become in the everyday cosmology of Hawai'i. Cook's changed cultural status, coupled with increasing reports of poor British behaviour, pushed Hawaiians to show their fresh displeasure with him. During one of many minor altercations, they stabbed and clubbed the captain to death.
Later commentators thought John Webber's depiction showed Cook trying to halt British violence. Officer reports at the time suggest, though, that he was trying instead to call in the boat to rescue him.
Purchased with funds provided by Robert Oatley AO 2007
'The photojournalists of their time'
An exploration of the role of artists such as John Webber who, whilst a member of Cook's crew over many voyages, created paintings and drawings of the situations and people the explorers encountered.
'The portraits of Captain Cook'
An interview with Betty Churcher
Betty Churcher describes the creation of the portrait of Captain James Cook in the National Portrait Gallery.
Cook, n.d. by Antoine Maurin, an unknown artist
Captain James Cook from the original in the Naval Gallery, Greenwich Hospital, c 1837 by Nathaniel Dance, William Holl, Peter Jackson, London & Paris
Captain James Cook, 1837 by Nathaniel Dance, William Holl, Fisher, Son & Co London
Captain James Cook FRS, 1784 by Thomas Cook
On display in Gallery Three
Robert Oatley Gallery
Portraits from the time of British settlement of Australia, where the colonization of Indigenous lands and bodies was neither simple nor straightforward.
Magazine article, Portrait 25
Cook in context
Robert Oatley's continuing benefaction has helped the National Portrait Gallery acquire works that add another layer to the story of Captain Cook.
John Webber	(age 33 in 1784)
Francesco Bartolozzi	(age 57 in 1784)
William Byrne	(age 41 in 1784)
Captain James Cook RN
Exploration and settlement