Art Funded by you

Mangianooa [Mangaia, Cook Islands]

William Wade Ellis, 1779

William Wade Ellis made this atmospheric sketch of Mangaia, the most southerly of the Cook Islands, during Captain Cook’s third voyage to the Pacific region (1776-80). The 1779 watercolour was recently discovered inside a box of old prints.

Ellis was a member of the ship’s medical crew, but he is now best remembered for the landscapes and natural-history drawings he made during the voyage. This watercolour is known as a running coastal profile, a type of sketch made to complement a chart and help future mariners recognise the features of a shore. Such work was essential to the official purpose of Cook’s voyages, which was to map supposedly unknown places.

Ellis died when he fell from a mainmast in 1785, at the age of just 34. This is the fifth of his watercolours to join the Captain Cook Memorial Museum, an institution which occupies a Whitby house known well to Cook during his time as an apprentice seaman there.

More information

Title of artwork, date

Mangianooa [Mangaia, Cook Islands], 1779

Date supported

2020

Medium and material

Pen and wash on paper

Dimensions

14 x 37.5

Total cost

19500

Content note: This object record is part of our archive and has not been updated since it was first published. It may contain inaccurate information or outdated language. Please get in touch if you think this record should be amended.

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