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What sort of artist was John Hamilton Mortimer? How did he come by such a lucrative and important commission and what did he make of his opportunity to paint some of the most lionised celebrities of his age? He was born in 1740, the fifth and youngest child of Thomas Mortimer, a prosperous businessman and mill owner in Eastbourne, Sussex. Sandwich also, as the Library’s painting attests, engaged a popular and successful artist-Mortimer-to portray him with Banks, Solander, Cook and Hawkesworth in a painting that celebrates the achievements of the first Cook Pacific voyage and signals the intention to undertake a second.
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He set about associating himself with the voyage and its principal players in a number of ways: establishing a lasting friendship with Banks, extending his professional patronage to Cook by promoting him to the rank of Commander on 19 August 1771, commissioning Dr John Hawkesworth to edit and see to publication an illustrated, authorised account of the voyage, 3 and agreeing to undertake a second voyage to the Pacific along the lines suggested in Cook’s detailed postscript to his voyage journal. Lord Sandwich, who would become something of a byword-even by eighteenth century standards-for the extent to which he employed the vast patronage of his office for personal and political ends, had not been responsible for the Endeavour’s voyage but was now in a position to benefit from its success. Five months earlier on January 12, and for the second time in his career, Lord Sandwich had been appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. Amongst those eagerly awaiting the Endeavour’s return was John Montague, 4th Earl of Sandwich. The presence of Banks and Solander on board, and the role played by the Royal Society in formulating the scientific aims of the voyage were unprecedented in a British Naval expedition and created enormous interest amongst polite society as to its outcome, an interest that would quickly spread to the broader public when sailors’ tales of ‘curious’ social customs in the Pacific began to circulate. In addition to the crew he had carefully chosen, his ship carried a party of ‘scientific gentlemen’, chief among them Joseph Banks, who had personally underwritten the considerable expenses for scientific equipment and personnel, and the eminent naturalist, Dr Daniel Solander. Lieutenant James Cook, the Endeavour’s captain, was a man whose abilities had won him the patronage that his undistinguished background could not. The ambitions and achievements of this voyage, which were in equal measure scientific and territorial, had been proposed by the Royal Society and undertaken at the express wish of King George III. On 12 June 1771, HM Bark Endeavour anchored in the Downs, completing an extraordinary four year voyage to the previously uncharted reaches of the Pacific Ocean.
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The reattribution of the painting to John Hamilton Mortimer, 2 further research into the circumstances under which the painting was produced, and a detailed examination of the painting itself, have proved the key to revealing Dame Merlyn’s gift as the earliest portrait of Captain Cook yet discovered, and one of the most important paintings relating to the British exploration of the Pacific undertaken by him. Rejection of the Zoffany attribution also cast doubt on the subjects-Joseph Banks and Captain Cook-and the date-1771 1-traditionally ascribed to the work. Early research into the painting revealed that it had hung unremarked in private collections for 150 years and then suffered a misattribution to Johann Zoffany which, while initially inflating its value in the art market, had obscured the painting’s true identity and significance. A beautiful work in good condition, the painting is unsigned and lacks its original title. The National Library of Australia holds within its large collection of artworks a most intriguing eighteenth century painting, the bequest of Dame Merlyn Myer. John Hamilton Mortimer (1740-1779), Captain James Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, Lord Sandwich, Dr Daniel Solander and Dr John Hawkesworth, c. 1771, oil on canvas, nla.pic-an7351768 Become a Friend of the National Library.2022 Appeal: Performing Arts Collections.National Library of Australia Publishing.Using the Library Expand Using the Library sub menu.
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