Webber was the official artist on Captain Cook?s third voyage of 1776-80. Their vessel, the Resolution reached Nootka Sound on the west coast of New Albion (now Vancouver Island) on 29 March 1778, and remained until 26 April. This was the first sustained contact between Europeans and the native people of the region. Weber made drawings of their homes, costumes, artefacts, and the customs he encountered, as well as the surrounding landscape. Over thirty canoes, like the ones seen here, were rowed out into the Sound to greet Cook and his crew when they arrived.
John Webber (English, 1751 - 1793)
Webber was the son of the Swiss sculptor Abraham Waber. He trained in Berne with the landscape painter Johann Ludwig Aberli, and then from 1770 studied at the Academie Royale in Paris. He entered the Royal Academy Schools in London and exhibited there in 1776. His work impressed the botanist Dr Daniel Carl Solander, who recommended his employment as the official artist on Captain James Cook?s third voyage (1776-80). This expedition was planned to find a sea passage around the north of America. They sailed on the `Resolution? and Webber made drawings throughout the voyage. They visited Tasmania, New Zealand, the South Pacific and the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and the Icy Cape. Webber witnessed Cook?s death. On his return to Britain, a number of his illustrations were engraved.
