print
- Museum number
- S,1.55
- Title
- Object: The Fleet of Otaheite assembled at Oparee.
- Description
-
Illustration to "A Voyage towards the South Pole ... in the years 1772-75": boats moored off the shore of Tahiti; on the boat in the foreground is a figure in mourner's dress. 1777
Etching
- Production date
- 1777
- Dimensions
-
Height: 246 millimetres
-
Width: 398 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Extract from Jennifer Newell's catalogue entry in S. O'Connell (ed.), "Britain meets the World: 1714-1830" (Palace Museum, Beijing, 2007): This etching is from the official account of Captain Cook’s second voyage. It depicts a Tahitian war fleet preparing to battle against the chief of a neighbouring island. Captain Cook, who witnessed the gathering on 30 April 1774, estimated that 4,000 men were called up to fight. Cook visited Tahiti twice in the course of his second Pacific voyage (1772-75). It was during his second stay that one of the Tahitian chiefs, Te-ari'i-fa, suggested that the artist, William Hodges, make drawings of the assembled fleet. Hodges did so - Hodges, Cook and his fellow voyagers were impressed by the elaborately carved canoes, the number of warriors, the intimidating costumes of the leaders and the precision with which the canoes were manoeuvred in unison. On returning to London, Hodges composed oil paintings from the voyage around the Pacific and Antarctic. His largest was of the Tahitian fleet.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2007 Mar-Jun, Beijing, Palace Museum, Britain meets the World
- Acquisition date
- 1799
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- S,1.55
