Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9204
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    ‘A Woman & a Boy, Natives of Otaheite, in the Dress of that Country’

    Date
    1773
    Creator
    Thomas Chambers (1724 - 1789, British) , Engraver
    After
    Sydney Parkinson (1740 - 1771, British) , Draftsman
    Object type
    Library reference
    58306
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 255mm
    width (print): 195mm
    Subject
    Description
    Portrait of an unnamed Tahitian, Mā'ohi, woman and child, referred to here as from 'Otaheite', Tahiti. Both are looking to the floor and dressed in breech cloths. The woman wears a shawl over her shoulders.

    Illustration from A journal of a voyage to the South Seas, in His Majesty's ship, The Endeavour, by Sydney Parkinson (London, 1773), which was published posthumously.

    Sydney Parkinson (c.1745-1771) Scottish natural history artist and Joseph Banks's (1743–1820) illustrator on board HMS Endeavour's voyage to the Pacific in 1768, under Lieutenant James Cook (1728-1779).

    Endeavour's mission was to observe the Transit of Venus, which they did from Tahiti on 3rd June 1769, and explore, claim resources and trade in the 'unknown southern land', Terra Australis Incognita.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Oceania
          > Tahiti
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