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Lot Essay
This important and apparently unpublished picture by John Webber, Captain Cook’s official artist on his third voyage, is one of the first views taken in Asia by a professional western artist. Webber’s work on the China coast and in south east Asia preceded that of the Daniells, who would similarly sketch the island in the Sunda Straits on their return from India in 1794 (see lot 16). The island of Krakatoa, just west of Java, sketched by Webber in February 1780, was to suffer a cataclysmic eruption just over a century later, on 27 August 1883.
Webber's visits to Vietnam and to Krakatau in the Sunda Straits came towards the end of Cook's third voyage. After Cook's death at Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii on 14 February 1779, Captain King took over command of the expedition and headed north again, to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia to seek a Passage through the ice. Without success, King decided to return to England, taking the Resolution and Discovery west past the Kurile Islands and Japanese coast toward Macao where they stayed from 1 December 1779 until 12 January 1780. From Macao, King had sailed to the small island of Pulau Condore (Con Son) outside the Mekong Delta before continuing on to take on water at Krakatau in the Sunda Straits: 'The island of Cracatoa is the southernmost of a group situated in the entrance of the Straits of Sunda. It has a high peaked hill on the South end... Off the North East lies a small island, which forms the road where the Resolution anchored ... . The place where the Resolution watered is a small spring, situated abreast of the South end of the small island, at a short distance from the water-side ... Cracatoa is esteemed very healthy, in comparison of the neighbouring countries. It consists of high land, rising gradually on all sides from the sea; and the whole is covered with trees, except a few spots which the natives have cleared for rice fields.' (J. Cook and J. King, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean ... , London, 1784, III, pp. 473-4). 'Webber... had four to five days at Krakatau - time enough to make the three drawings which he listed in his Catalogue (nos. 156-158). Among these is his A View in the Island of Cracatoa ... , which became a popular subject after the voyage and was included in his Views in the South Seas. The scene shows two natives among huts in a clearing, surrounded by thick, tropical forest. It was only during the last stage of the voyage that Webber developed a distinct feeling for plant life ... . More than ever now Webber recorded the botanical production of the tropics, depicting many markedly different plants in the same view ... These slices of exuberant nature differ from all of Webber's previous work.' (R. Joppien and B. Smith, The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages, New Haven and London, 1988, III, Text, pp.148-151).
Webber's first voyage subjects exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784 and 1785 tended to be Asian subjects, including views at Pulo Condore, Macao and Krakatau. He was the first professional European artist to work on the China coast and it seems the novelty of these subjects gave them obvious precedence for exhibition, Hodges having already exhibited subjects from the South Pacific after Cook's second voyage: 'It would seem that Webber prepared his audience only gradually for this new world. In the R.A. exhibitions of 1784, 1785 and 1786 he showed eight subjects which were either taken from Macao, Pulau Condore or Cracatoa, though they were of relatively little importance to the voyage as a whole. On the other hand they were important for the European perception of Asia. It is only from 1786 that the balance of subjects Webber exhibited turned in favour of the Society and Friendly Islands. These of course had been visited on all three voyages and had become increasingly appreciated and understood by visitors to Academy exhibitions ... . In 1791 Webber was elected a full member of the Royal Academy ... . At the age of thirty-nine Webber was at the peak of his career. Of all members of the Academy, indeed of all English artists, Webber had travelled the most widely and witnessed the greatest diversification of landscapes throughout the world ... . The recognition of his merits with a full membership of the Academy, indicates a major breakthrough in the appreciation and recognition of exotic landscape painting in Britain at the end of the eighteenth century.' (R. Joppien and B. Smith, op, cit., III, Text, p.191).
A drawing by Webber of the same subject (omitting the family group seated on the left) is in the British Library. The drawing is inscribed 'Pulau Condore' [Vietnam] on the mount but Rüdiger Joppien has suggested the subject is Krakatau from comparison with the structure of the house and palisaded fence in the large oil of Krakatau dated 1784. This latter oil was probably Webber's 'View at Cracatoa, an island in the China seas' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. For the latter oil, its preliminary drawing and the subsequent etchings for the official account of the voyage and for Webber's Views in the South Seas, see R. Joppien and B. Smith, op. cit., III, Catalogue, pp. 613-15, nos. 3.410, 3.408 and 3.410A-C. The building on the left in the present picture is included with the building on the right in this latter picture in Webber's small pen, wash and oil study (in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Joppien and Smith, no. 3.411) which Joppien (loc. cit.) suggests is a stage design for de Loutherbourg's pantomime 'Omai, or a Trip round the World', staged at Covent Garden in December 1785.
Webber's visits to Vietnam and to Krakatau in the Sunda Straits came towards the end of Cook's third voyage. After Cook's death at Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii on 14 February 1779, Captain King took over command of the expedition and headed north again, to the Kamchatka Peninsula of Siberia to seek a Passage through the ice. Without success, King decided to return to England, taking the Resolution and Discovery west past the Kurile Islands and Japanese coast toward Macao where they stayed from 1 December 1779 until 12 January 1780. From Macao, King had sailed to the small island of Pulau Condore (Con Son) outside the Mekong Delta before continuing on to take on water at Krakatau in the Sunda Straits: 'The island of Cracatoa is the southernmost of a group situated in the entrance of the Straits of Sunda. It has a high peaked hill on the South end... Off the North East lies a small island, which forms the road where the Resolution anchored ... . The place where the Resolution watered is a small spring, situated abreast of the South end of the small island, at a short distance from the water-side ... Cracatoa is esteemed very healthy, in comparison of the neighbouring countries. It consists of high land, rising gradually on all sides from the sea; and the whole is covered with trees, except a few spots which the natives have cleared for rice fields.' (J. Cook and J. King, A Voyage to the Pacific Ocean ... , London, 1784, III, pp. 473-4). 'Webber... had four to five days at Krakatau - time enough to make the three drawings which he listed in his Catalogue (nos. 156-158). Among these is his A View in the Island of Cracatoa ... , which became a popular subject after the voyage and was included in his Views in the South Seas. The scene shows two natives among huts in a clearing, surrounded by thick, tropical forest. It was only during the last stage of the voyage that Webber developed a distinct feeling for plant life ... . More than ever now Webber recorded the botanical production of the tropics, depicting many markedly different plants in the same view ... These slices of exuberant nature differ from all of Webber's previous work.' (R. Joppien and B. Smith, The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages, New Haven and London, 1988, III, Text, pp.148-151).
Webber's first voyage subjects exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784 and 1785 tended to be Asian subjects, including views at Pulo Condore, Macao and Krakatau. He was the first professional European artist to work on the China coast and it seems the novelty of these subjects gave them obvious precedence for exhibition, Hodges having already exhibited subjects from the South Pacific after Cook's second voyage: 'It would seem that Webber prepared his audience only gradually for this new world. In the R.A. exhibitions of 1784, 1785 and 1786 he showed eight subjects which were either taken from Macao, Pulau Condore or Cracatoa, though they were of relatively little importance to the voyage as a whole. On the other hand they were important for the European perception of Asia. It is only from 1786 that the balance of subjects Webber exhibited turned in favour of the Society and Friendly Islands. These of course had been visited on all three voyages and had become increasingly appreciated and understood by visitors to Academy exhibitions ... . In 1791 Webber was elected a full member of the Royal Academy ... . At the age of thirty-nine Webber was at the peak of his career. Of all members of the Academy, indeed of all English artists, Webber had travelled the most widely and witnessed the greatest diversification of landscapes throughout the world ... . The recognition of his merits with a full membership of the Academy, indicates a major breakthrough in the appreciation and recognition of exotic landscape painting in Britain at the end of the eighteenth century.' (R. Joppien and B. Smith, op, cit., III, Text, p.191).
A drawing by Webber of the same subject (omitting the family group seated on the left) is in the British Library. The drawing is inscribed 'Pulau Condore' [Vietnam] on the mount but Rüdiger Joppien has suggested the subject is Krakatau from comparison with the structure of the house and palisaded fence in the large oil of Krakatau dated 1784. This latter oil was probably Webber's 'View at Cracatoa, an island in the China seas' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1785. For the latter oil, its preliminary drawing and the subsequent etchings for the official account of the voyage and for Webber's Views in the South Seas, see R. Joppien and B. Smith, op. cit., III, Catalogue, pp. 613-15, nos. 3.410, 3.408 and 3.410A-C. The building on the left in the present picture is included with the building on the right in this latter picture in Webber's small pen, wash and oil study (in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Joppien and Smith, no. 3.411) which Joppien (loc. cit.) suggests is a stage design for de Loutherbourg's pantomime 'Omai, or a Trip round the World', staged at Covent Garden in December 1785.