1778 Capt. Cook Antique Print Portrait of a Woman of New Caledonia Visit in 1774

Publisher : Captain James Cook

Description:
This fine original copper-plate engraved antique print, portrait of a Woman of the Islands of New Caledonia in the South Pacific, visited by Captain James Cook during his 2nd Voyage of Discovery in the South Seas in September 1774, was engraved by Robert Benard - after William Hodges - and was published in the 1778 French edition of Capt. James Cooks 2nd Voyage of Discovery to the South Seas A voyage towards the South Pole, and round the World. Performed in His Majestys ships the Resolution and Adventure, in the years 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775..... Paris : Hotel de Thou ......1778

Cook Diary, 4-13th Sep. 1774
4th Sun. Sights Cape Colnett (New Caledonia).
5th Mon. Enters reef (Amoss Passage) between Cook Reef and Balade Reef, anchors off Observatory Isle (Pudiu), visited by inhabitants.
6th Tue. Goes ashore with armed boats, rows along coast, returns to ship. Visited by natives, meets Chief, Teeabooma. Wales and Pickersgill land on Isle, Cook goes to help. Observatory set up for eclipse of Sun.
7th Wed. Eclipse, cloudy at first, observations made. Returns to ship, goes ashore again and returns. Simon Monk, ship’s butcher, dies after fall down fore-hatchway previous night.
8th Thu. Goes ashore. Excursion to west. The Forsters and Cook are ill with eating poisoned fish, liver and roe (Toadfish).
9th Fri. Exchanges presents with Teeabooma but still indisposed.
10th Sat. Forster ashore botanising.
12th Mon. Cutter is damaged when Gilbert and Pickersgill are returning from a visit to the north-west of island. Repairs made.
13th Tue. Takes possession of island in name of King George III, naming it New Caledonia. Sails back through reef and heads NW. along coast, outside Cook Reef, passes Great False Passage.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 10in x 8in (255mm x 205mm)
Plate size: - 9 1/2in x 7 1/4in (240mm x 185mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Light soiling in margins
Plate area: - None
Verso: - None

Background: 
New Caledonia is a special collective of France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, 1,210 km east of Australia and 20,000 km from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia sub-region, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. Locals refer to Grande Terre as Le Caillou (the pebble)
British explorer Captain James Cook was the first European to sight New Caledonia, on 4 September 1774, during his second voyage. He named it New Caledonia, as the northeast of the island reminded him of Scotland. The west coast of Grande Terre was approached by Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse in 1788, shortly before his disappearance, and the Loyalty Islands were first visited between 1793 and 1796 when Mare, Lifou, Tiga, and Ouvea were mapped by William Raven. The American whaler encountered the island named then Britania, and today known as Mar (Loyalty Is.) in November 1793. From 1796 until 1840, only a few sporadic contacts with the archipelago were recorded. About fifty American whalers (identified by Robert Langsom from their log books) have been recorded in the region (Grande Terre, Loyalty Is., Walpole and Hunter) between 1793 and 1887. Contacts became more frequent after 1840, because of the interest in sandalwood

William Hodges RA 1744 – 1797 was an English painter. He was a member of James Cooks second voyage to the Pacific Ocean, and is best known for the sketches and paintings of locations he visited on that voyage, including Table Bay, Tahiti, Easter Island, and the Antarctic.
Between 1772 and 1775 Hodges accompanied James Cook to the Pacific as the expeditions artist. Many of his sketches and wash paintings were adapted as engravings in the original published edition of Cooks journals from the voyage.
Most of the large-scale landscape oil paintings from his Pacific travels for which Hodges is best known were finished after his return to London; he received a salary from the Admiralty for the purposes of completing them. These paintings depicted a stronger light and shadow than had been usual in European landscape tradition. Contemporary art critics complained that his use of light and colour contrasts gave his paintings a rough and unfinished appearance.
Hodges also produced many valuable portrait sketches of Pacific islanders and scenes from the voyage involving members of the expedition..

Robert Bénard 1734 – 1777 was an 18th-century French engraver.
Specialized in the technique of engraving, Robert Ménard is mainly famous for having supplied a significant amount of plates (at least 1,800) to the Encyclopédie by Diderot & d\'Alembert from 1751.
Later, publisher Charles-Joseph Panckoucke reused many of his productions to illustrate the works of his catalog.

$105.00