Description

Scarce miniature head and shoulder engraved portrait of Cook by J. Chapman based on the oil portrait by Nathaniel Dance which is considered to be the best likeness of Cook made. This engraving, dated September 20th 1800, includes a vignette of Cook’s death in Hawaii on 14th February, 1779.

The Dance oil It portrayed Cook in captain’s full-dress uniform, consisting of a navy blue jacket and white breeches, white waistcoat embellished with gold braid and buttons. He wears a grey wig or his own hair powdered and holds his own chart of the Southern hemisphere while his right hand points to the east coast of Australia. Cook had returned from his second voyage in 1775 and had sat for this portrait, commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks, ‘for a few hours before dinner’ on 25 May 1776. This portrait had hung over the fireplace in the library of Bank’s London house. Samwell, surgeon’s mate in the ‘Resolution’ on the second voyage and surgeon on the ‘Discovery’ on the third, thought it ‘a most excellent likeness … and … the only one I have seen that bears any resemblance to him’.