John Webber

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John Webber, Portrait by Johann Daniel Mottet (1812)

John Webber , actually Johann Wäber , (born October 6, 1751 in London , † April 29, 1793 ibid) was an English painter and draftsman of Swiss origin. He was the first Swiss to set foot on Australian soil on Bruny Island off Tasmania on January 27, 1777 when Captain James Cook's fleet anchored in Adventure Bay . He was best known as the expedition painter on Captain Cook's third expedition to the South Seas (1776–1780).

Life

John Webber was the eldest son of the Bernese sculptor Abraham Wäber who had emigrated to London . Due to family needs, he was given to his unmarried aunt Rosina Wäber, sister-in-law of the cabinetmaker Mathäus Funk, to Bern in 1757 at the age of six . From 1767 to 1770 he was an apprentice to the landscape painter and etcher Johann Ludwig Aberli and then studied with Johann Georg Wille at the Académie Royale in Paris on a scholarship from the civil society . Returned to London in 1775, he became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts and also worked as a decorative painter .

Due to some of the nature and landscape pictures exhibited, Daniel Carl Solander hired him in 1776 as an expedition painter and draftsman for Captain James Cook's third expedition to the south, which was initially planned to be 3 years . Due to his death in 1779 and problems in the North Pacific and Ireland, the return journey lasted until October 1780. After that, Webber was responsible for editing the illustrated folio volume with 69 copperplate engravings , which only appeared in London in 1784, two years after the text volumes. The reason for the delay lay in difficulties with the engravers, but also in the scene of Cook's death, which, contrary to the turbulent process, was supposed to make a heroic impression on the audience.

At the end of 1785 he was persuaded to be the set designer for the pantomime Omai or a Trip round the World performed in Covent Garden . The scene revolved around the "noble savage" that Cook had brought back to his home island. Webber tried, with limited success, to keep the play close to the truth rather than popular gossip. The following year he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Royal Academy. In 1787 he published more pictures in his Views in the South Sea , which comprised 16 panels by 1792. During these years he went on extensive study trips to northern England and France and visited Switzerland again, where he bequeathed several works and over 100 ethnographic collectibles to the voyage in Bern - the city of his childhood . At the end of April 1793 he died of kidney failure . Two months later, the rest of his large estate was auctioned off at Christie's .

exhibition

gallery

  • Portrait James Cook ~ 1777

  • Portrait of Mathäus Funk (foster father), 1770

  • Woman from Eaoo ( Eua Island )

  • Princess Poetua, Tahiti ~ 1777

  • Oil painting of the later King Pomaré I in Tahiti

  • Chief in Hawaii, 1787

  • Islanders from Atooi

  • Abbey Mill, Shrewsbury

  • Santa Cruz, Tenerife

  • Matavai, Tahiti

  • on Ulietea (Raiatea)

  • night dance by women in Samoa

  • Heiau on Waimea (Kauai, Hawaii)

  • Canoe in the Hawaiian Islands ~ 1778

  • Drums (Tahiti), basketwork and idol statues (Hawaii)

Fiction

literature

  • William Hauptman et al .: John Webber 1751-1793. Landscape painter and South Sea sailor. Pacific voyager and landscape artist (exhibition catalog), Bern / Manchester 1996.
  • William Hauptman: Henry Webber and Johann Friedrich Funk: Observations on two Portraits by John Webber. In: Journal for Swiss Archeology and Art History. Volume 56, No. 1, 1999, pp. 41-52. doi: 10.5169 / seals-169563

Web links

Commons : John Webber  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Swiss landed on Tasmania. In: 200 years of history of the German-speaking community in Australia. Part I, p. 88. Special Edition: The Week in Australia of January 1988. Europa Kurier Pty. Ltd. Bankstown. ISSN  0726-4860
personal data
SURNAME Webber, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wäber, Johann (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English painter of Swiss origin
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1793
Place of death London