Alexander Buchan (artist)
Alexander Buchan | |
---|---|
Died | 17 April 1769 Matavai Bay, Tahiti |
Known for | landscape and ethnographic art from the first voyage of James Cook |
Patron(s) | Joseph Banks |
Alexander Buchan (died 17 April 1769) was a Scottish
Background
Nothing is known about the early life of Buchan,
Voyage with Captain Cook
On the
Buchan is not mentioned often in the surviving journals from the voyage.[15] In Banks' journals, his first appearance is a note that Buchan drew views of the Cape Verde islands on 30 September 1768.[1][16] Buchan's epilepsy first comes up in Banks' journal during an expedition in Tierra del Fuego.[15] Endeavour lay at anchor in the Bay of Good Success on 15 January 1769.[17] On 16 January, a group of eleven people including Banks, Daniel Solander, Buchan and four of Banks' servants went on an expedition in the country, attempting to reach the top of the hills.[18] During this, Buchan had an epileptic seizure, a fire was lit, and the servants stayed with Buchan while Banks and others went on to search for alpine plants. On their return, the weather became cold and it started to snow, making it impossible to return to the ship. Two of Banks' servants, Richmond and Dorlton, got drunk on whiskey and died from exposure that night, but Buchan recovered.[19][1]
On 20 January, Banks visited an Ona village, very likely together with Buchan, whose drawing of An Indian Town at Terra del Fuego (engraved as View of a Village in the Bay of Good Success, in the Island of Terra del Fuego) illustrates Banks' description:[20]
The town itself was situate upon a dry Knowl among the trees, which were not at all cleard away, it consisted of not more than twelve or fourteen huts or wigwams of the most unartificial construction imaginable, indeed no thing bearing the name of a hut could possibly be built with less trouble. They consisted of a few poles set up and meeting together at the top in a conical figure, these were coverd on the weather side with a few boughs and a little grass, on the lee side about one eighth part of the circle was left open and against this opening was a fire made.[21]
Death at Tahiti
From Tierra del Fuego, the Endeavour continued to
At 2 oClock this Morning departed this Life Mr Alex Buchan Landscip Draftsman to Mr Banks, a Gentleman well skill'd in his profession and one that will be greatly miss'd in the course of this Voyage, he had long been subject to a disorder in his Bowels which had more than once brought him to the Very point of death and was at the same time subject to fits of one of which he was taken on Saturday morning, this brought on his former disorder which brought a period to his life.[25]
This was the first mention of Buchan in Cook's journals.[1] In a first draft of Cook's journal, he also stated about Buchan, "there are now none on board who understands this sort of drawing."[26][27]
I sincerely regret him as an ingenious and good young man, but his Loss to me is irretrevable, my airy dreams of entertaining my freinds in England with the scenes that I am to see here are vanishd. No account of the figures and dresses of men can be satisfactory unless illustrated with figures: had providence spard him a month longer what an advantage would it have been to my undertaking but I must submit.[28]
After Buchan's death, his duties in drawing people and landscapes fell to Parkinson and Spöring.[29][30]
Artworks and legacy
Following Buchan's death, Banks took possession of all his drawings from the voyage.[1] Buchan's natural history drawings are now in the British Natural History Museum, and include some drawings in pen and watercolour of marine animals from the coast of Brazil,[31] as well as a cockroach from Madeira.[22] The remaining material has been held by the British Library, since 1827, when Robert Brown transferred the library of Joseph Banks to the British Museum.[32][33]
Buchan's best-known works are his illustrations of the people of western
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A view of the Endeavour's watering place in the Bay of Good Success, January 1769
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Inhabitants of the island of Tierra del Fuego, in their hut, January 1769
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A View of the Indians of Tierra del Fuego in their hut, engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi after a drawing by Giovanni Battista Cipriani
References
- ^ a b c d e Joppien & Smith 1985, p. 73.
- ^ a b Smith 1979, p. 87.
- ^ Lysaght 1979, pp. 16–17.
- ^ a b David 1988, p. xliii.
- ^ Lysaght 1979, p. 18.
- ^ Beaglehole 1974, p. 145.
- ^ Smith 1979, p. 89.
- ^ Lysaght 1979, p. 48.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 24.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 28.
- ^ a b Smith 1985, p. 18.
- ^ Smith 1992, p. 54.
- ^ David 1988, p. xxxviii.
- ^ David 1988, p. xli.
- ^ a b Lysaght 1979, p. 19.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 168.
- ^ Beaglehole 1974, p. 161.
- ^ Beaglehole 1974, p. 162.
- ^ Beaglehole 1974, pp. 162–163.
- ^ a b Joppien & Smith 1985, pp. 11, 41.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 224.
- ^ a b Lotzof 2018.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 257.
- ^ a b Turnbull 2004.
- ^ Beaglehole 1968, p. 81.
- ^ Lysaght 1979, p. 22.
- ^ Beaglehole 1968, p. 524.
- ^ Beaglehole 1962, p. 258.
- ^ Beaglehole 1974, p. 178.
- ^ Smith 1985, p. 18.
- ^ Joppien & Smith 1985, pp. 73–74.
- ^ Joppien & Smith 1985, p. 67.
- ^ Lysaght 1979, p. 31.
- ^ Smith 1985, p. 40.
- ^ Joppien & Smith 1985, p. 16.
- ^ Smith 1979, pp. 90–91.
Sources
- OCLC 222980498.
- Beaglehole, John C. (1968) [1955]. The Journals of Captain James Cook: The Voyage of the Endeavour, 1768–1771. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Hakluyt Society. OCLC 223185477.
- Beaglehole, John C. (1974). The life of Captain James Cook. London: Adam & Charles Black. OCLC 480115019.
- David, Andrew (1988). The charts and coastal views of Captain Cook's voyages 1. The voyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771. London: Hakluyt Society. OCLC 165437019.
- Joppien, Rüdiger; OCLC 12544694.
- Lotzof, Kerry (17 August 2018). "HMS Endeavour 250". www.nhm.ac.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-7141-0088-3.
- OCLC 1230757596.
- Smith, Bernard (1985). European vision and the South Pacific. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-02815-7.
- Smith, Bernard (1992). Imagining the Pacific: in the wake of the Cook voyages. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-05053-0.
- Turnbull, Paul (5 May 2004). "Buchan, Alexander (? – 1769)". South Seas Companion. National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 24 September 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2009.