Enfilade

Now on view at the British Library, with lots of information and resources on the BL’s exhibition website:

James Cook: The Voyages
British Library, London, 27 April — 28 August 2018

Curated by William Frame and Laura Walker

It is 250 years since the Endeavour set sail from Plymouth in August of 1768. Our exhibition tells the story of Captain James Cook’s three world-changing voyages through original documents, many of which were produced by the artists, scientists, and sailors on board the ships. Maps, artworks, and journals from the voyages sit alongside newly-commissioned films offering contemporary perspectives. Examine the expeditions that shaped Europe’s knowledge of the world and consider their far-reaching legacy.

See Cook’s handwritten journal detailing the first crossing of the Antarctic Circle, when they travelled further south than anyone in the world, stunning artwork including the earliest European depiction of a kangaroo, and intricate maps charting the voyages that spanned more than a decade. Learn about the experiences on board the Endeavour, Resolution, and Discovery and the impact of their arrival. Drawings by the Polynesian high priest and navigator Tupaia, who accompanied Cook to New Zealand and Australia, will be displayed together for the first time. These will sit alongside works by expedition artists Sydney Parkinson, William Hodges, and John Webber.

Visit our James Cook: The Voyages website for a range of different perspectives on the voyages and their legacy and impact. These include responses from people of the communities Cook encountered, documented, and learned from. You can also follow the timeline of the journeys, read articles about the individual voyages and immerse yourself in the expeditions through our digitised collection items.

Hear the stories. Read the diaries. Revisit the momentous voyages made 250 years ago.

Programming information is available here»

William Frame with Laura Walker, James Cook: The Voyages (London: British Library Publishing, 2018), 224 pages, ISBN: 978-0773552869, £25 / $45.

A stunningly illustrated, object-centred history, this book offers a once in a generation opportunity to discover the uniquely rich Captain Cook collection of the British Library. The authors explore a series of themes including the navigation and charting of the Pacific; first encounters between Western and indigenous cultures; the representation of the voyages in art; and scientific discovery and the natural world. Themes of cultural encounter and scientific discovery are interwoven with the personal stories of the key protagonists, including James Cook and Joseph Banks. The illustrations include drawings by all the artists employed on the voyage, as well as the only surviving paintings by Tupaia, a Polynesian high priest who joined Cook’s ship at Tahiti and sailed to New Zealand and Australia.

William Frame is head of modern archives and manuscripts at the British Library. Laura Walker is lead curator of modern archives and manuscripts, 1850–1950, at the British Library.

I noted this exhibition in 2015 when it was entitled Napoleon’s Artists in Australia. Here’s a more complete venue listing with details on the catalogue, published by Wakefield Press. –CH

The Art of Science: Nicolas Baudin’s Voyagers, 1800–1804
South Australian Maritime Museum, Adelaide, 30 June — 11 December 2016
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, 7 January — 20 March 2017
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 7 April — 9 July 2017
Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, 31 August — 26 November 2017
National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 30 March — 20 June 2018
Western Australian Museum, Perth, 12 September — 12 December 2018

See exquisite illustrations of Australian animals and marine life, as well as striking portraits of Aboriginal people, rare documents and hand-drawn maps from Nicolas Baudin’s expedition to Australia. Discover the ambitions behind this lavishly funded French voyage and experience a captivating fusion of art and science.

Jean Fornasiero, Lindl Lawton, John West-Sooby, eds., The Art of Science: Nicolas Baudin’s Voyagers 1800–1804 (Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 2016), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-1743054277, $40AU.

It was one of the most lavishly equipped scientific expeditions ever to leave Europe. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, French navigator Nicolas Baudin led two ships carrying 22 scientists and more than 230 officers and crew on a three-and-a-half-year voyage to the ‘Southern Lands’, charting coasts, studying the natural environment and recording encounters with indigenous peoples. Inspired by the Enlightenment’s hunger for knowledge, Baudin’s expedition collected well in excess of 100,000 specimens, produced more than 1500 drawings and published the first complete chart of Australia. Baudin’s artists, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit, painted a series of remarkable portraits of Aboriginal people and produced some of the earliest European views of Australian fauna. An integral part of the French scientific project, these exquisite artworks reveal the sense of wonder this strange new world inspired.

Jean Fornasiero is Emeritus Professor of French Studies at the University of Adelaide and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Lindl Lawton is Senior Curator at the South Australian Maritime Museum. John West-Sooby is Professor of French Studies at the University of Adelaide.