John Webber
Documented Pacific voyages through art
John Webber RA was an English artist who accompanied Captain Cook on his third Pacific expedition. He is best known for his images of Australasia, Hawaii and Alaska. 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 HMS Resolution. At Adventure Bay in January 1777 he did drawings of "A Man of Van Diemen's Land" and "A Woman of Van Diemen's Land". He also did many drawings of scenes in New Zealand and the South Sea islands. 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 Hawaii, 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, Vancouver Island, 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.
Artworks by this artist (43 total)
- The Balagans or Summer Habitations, with the Method of Drying Fish, at St. Peter and Paul, Kamtschatka 1792
- Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound
- The Harbour of Pulo Condere
- Landscape in Derbyshire 1789
- View in the Island of Cracatoa
- View of the Harbour of Taloo in the Island of Eimeo 1789
- View in Oheitepeha Bay, Otaheite 1791
- View on the Lake, Como 1787
- The Fan Palm of Cracatoa 1788
- View from Renard’s Hole, Dovedale, Derbyshire 1789
- View of Santa Cruz, Tenerife
- The Resolution Beating through the Ice, with the Discovery in the most eminent Danger in the Distance 1792
- Pliny’s Villa, belonging to the Marquis Canarizi near Como 1787
- The Narta or Sledge for Burdens in Kamtschatka 1789
- A Man of the Sandwich Islands ca. 1784
- Rider with dog at a watering place, on the right, a man embraces a girl 1773
- A Toopapaoo of a Chief, with a Priest Making his Offering to the Morai, in Huoheine 1789
- Goodrich Castle on the Wye, Hertfordshire 1788
- Thurshouse Tor from the river Manifold, Derbyshire
- A Toopapapoo of a Chief, with a Priest Making his Offering to the Morai, in Huoheine 1789