The Cession of the District of Matavai in the Island of Otaheité to Captain James Wilson, for the use of the Missionaries of the London Missionary Society

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Robert Smirke was born in Wigton, Carlisle. He was brought to London by his father in 1766 and apprenticed to a coach painter named Bromley. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1772 and exhibited at the Academy from 1786 to 1800, in 1805 and in 1815. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1791 and a full Royal Academician two years later. Smirke specialised in unusually small scale scenes from literary or theatrical subjects, and his works are often humorous. His radical and revolutionary opinions led George III to bar his appointment as Keeper of the Royal Academy in 1804. The artist died at the age of 92 at his home in Osnaburgh Terrace, near Regent's Park, London.
Francesco Bartolozzi was born in Italy. He became a pupil of the German painter and printmaker Joseph Wagner, then based in Venice. In 1764, he was invited to England by Frederick Augusta Barnard, King George III's Librarian. Although best known for copying Old Master drawings in the stipple technique (such as his reproductions of Guercino’s drawings in the Royal Collection), Bartolozzi also engraved plates after contemporary artists (notably Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Angelica Kauffmann). He set up a studio in London, which produced large numbers of ‘furniture prints’ (generally set within a roundel or oval and intended for framing). In 1802 he left England to become Director of the Lisbon Academy in Portugal.

People

James Wilson (c.1760 - 1814)

Places

Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, Tahiti

Subjects

topography, group portrait, Victorian Genre, tree, palm, boy, baby, man, woman, girl, 19th century costume, dress, captain (navy), missionary

Materials & Techniques

engraving, stipple engraving

Artist

Robert Smirke (1753 - 1845)
Francesco Bartolozzi (1727 - 1815)

Title

The Cession of the District of Matavai in the Island of Otaheité to Captain James Wilson, for the use of the Missionaries of the London Missionary Society

Date

published 1 January 1803

Medium

Stipple engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Colnaghi, April 1952

GAC number

1565