John Webber (6 October 1751 – 29 May 1793) was an English artist who accompanied

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and ...

on his third

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

expedition. He is best known for his images of

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologi ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

and

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

Biography

Webber was born in London, educated in Bern and studied painting at Paris. His father was Abraham Wäber, a Swiss sculptor who had moved to London, and changed his name to Webber before marrying a Mrs Mary Quant in 1744. Webber served as official artist on James Cook's third voyage of discovery around the Pacific (1776–1880) aboard . At Adventure Bay in January 1777 he did drawings of "A Man of

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

" and "A Woman of Van Diemen's Land". He also did many drawings of scenes in

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

and the

South Sea islands Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

. On this voyage, during which Cook lost his life in a fight in Hawaii, Webber became the first European artist to make contact with Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands. He made numerous watercolor landscapes of the islands of Kauai and

, and also portrayed many of the Hawaiian people. In April 1778, Captain Cook's ships ''Resolution'' and ''Discovery'' anchored at Ship Cove, now known as

Nootka Sound , image = Morning on Nootka Sound.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Clouds over Nootka Sound , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = Map of Nootka So ...

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are of land. The island is the largest by ...

, Canada to refit. The crew took observations and recorded encounters with the local people. Webber made watercolour landscapes including "Resolution and Discovery in Ship Cove, 1778". His drawings and paintings were engraved for the British Admiralty's account of the expedition, which was published in 1784. Back in England in 1780 Webber exhibited around 50 works at Royal Academy exhibitions between 1784 and 1792, and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1785 and R.A. in 1791. Most of his work were landscapes. Sometimes figures were included as in "A Party from H.M.S. Resolution shooting sea horses", which was shown at the academy in 1784, and his "The Death of Captain Cook" became well known through an engraving of it. Another version of this picture is in the William Dixson gallery at Sydney.

Collections

The Anchorage Museum of History and Art (Alaska), th
Museum of the Aleutians
(Alaska), the Bishop Museum (Honolulu), the

Honolulu Museum of Art The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

, the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and th ...

(Salem, Massachusetts), the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

, the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

, the

Sir John Soane's Museum Sir John Soane's Museum is a house museum, located next to Lincoln's Inn Fields in Holborn, London, which was formerly the home of neo-classical architect, John Soane. It holds many drawings and architectural models of Soane's projects, and ...

(London), The National Maritime Museum (London), the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa , the

John Carter Brown Library The John Carter Brown Library is an independently funded research library of history and the humanities on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. The library's rare book, manuscript, and map collections encompass a variety of ...

, and the

Mitchell Library (Australia) The State Library of New South Wales, part of which is known as the Mitchell Library, is a large heritage-listed special collections, reference and research library open to the public and is one of the oldest libraries in Australia. Establis ...

are among the public collections holding works by John Webber.

Australia

Webber's art is held by a number of Australian institutions including the National Portrait Gallery (''William Bligh'', c.1776, ''The Death of Captain Cook'' (engraving), 1784, and ''Portrait of Captain James Cook RN'', 1782); the

Australian National Maritime Museum The Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) is a federally operated maritime museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney. After considering the idea of establishing a maritime museum, the federal government announced that a national maritime museum wou ...

(''View of Huaheine'', 1784); the Art Gallery of New South Wales (''A View in Otaheite Peha'', 1785); the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

(includes ''Sea Otter'', 1778, ''A Woman of Pulo Condore'', 1780, ''Portrait of Captain John Gore'', 1780, ''Poedua, Daughter of Orea, King of Ulietea, Society Islands'', 1782, ''Portrait of Captain James King'', 1782, ''A Dance in Otaheite'', 1784, ''A Woman of Van Diemen's Land'', 1784, ''A Chief of the Sandwich Islands'', 1787, and ''The Resolution Beating Through the Ice'', 1792,); the Dixson Library (includes ''An Opossum of Van Diemen's Land'', 1777, ''Red-tailed Tropic Bird'', 1777, and ''The Death of Captain Cook'', c.1781–83.); and the

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

(''A Night Dance by Men, in Hapaee'', 1784, ''A Young Woman of the Sandwich Islands'', 1784, and ''A Man of Van Diemen's Land'', 1784.).

Works

File:John Webber's oil painting 'A Chief of the Sandwich Islands', 1787.jpg, 'A Chief of the Sandwich Islands' (oil), 1787, National Library of Australia File:John Webber's oil painting 'Abbey Mill, Shrewsbury'.jpg, 'Abbey Mill, Shrewsbury' (oil) File:John Webber - 'Kealakekua Bay and the village Kowroaa', 1779, ink, ink wash and watercolor.jpg, ''Kealakekua Bay and the Village Kowroaa'', 1779 ink wash and watercolor by John Webber,

File:FrauEaoo.jpg, John Webber's woman from Eaoo File:Tereoboo, King of Owyhee, bringing presents to Captain Cook by John Webber.jpg, John Webber's Tereoboo, King of Owyhee, bringing presents to Captain Cook 1784 File:Sea Otter.png, John Webber's Sea Otter File:John Webber - Portrait of Captain James Cook - Google Art Project.jpg, John Webber's Captain Cook, oil on canvas, 1776 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa File:James Cook by John Webber.jpg, John Webber's James Cook, before 1793 File:John Webber - Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound - Google Art Project.jpg, Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound, 1788 Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa File:Man of Nootka Sound.jpg, John Webber's Man of Nootka Sound File:Death of Captain Cook.jpg, John Webber's 'The Death of Captain Cook' File:Portrait of a Man of Prince William's Sound (Left); Portrait of A Woman of Prince William's Sound (Right).jpg File:The Inside of a House in Nootka Sound.jpg File:A Man of Oonalashka.jpg File:John Webber - Poedooa, the Daughter of Oree.jpg, A

Polynesia Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...

n woman, painted in 1777 by John Webber

References

* Ellis, George R., ''Honolulu Academy of Arts, Selected Works'', Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1990, 178, * Forbes, David W., ''Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941'', Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 15–85.

External links

*
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''Digitized works
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webber, John 1752 births 1793 deaths 18th-century English painters English male painters English people of Swiss descent English explorers of North America Explorers of Alaska James Cook Painters from London Royal Academicians 18th-century English male artists

Biography

Collections

Australia

Works

See also

References

External links