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

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