Collaborative Drawing on Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage, 1768-1771: an Intellectual History of Artistic Practice
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Collaborative Drawing on Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage, 1768-1771: An Intellectual History of Artistic Practice Harriet Parsons Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December, 2018. School of Culture and Communication The University of Melbourne Abstract This thesis investigates what can be learned from the drawn gesture on paper by locating it in the historical context in which it was made. This ‘contextualist’ approach to drawing analysis is derived from the methodologies used for text analysis in intellectual history. Intellectual historians recapture the meaning a text conveyed to its original readers by reconstructing the ‘language game’ of the author. The game has two dimensions in this approach: the concepts and practices that define the cultural norms of the author’s society and intellectual community, and might be described as the ‘rules of the game’, and the creative ‘moves’ made by individuals within these parameters as participants in a discourse with the author that constitute the game’s ‘play’. This thesis proposes to expand the field of intellectual history by incorporating the dimension of gesture into the moves of the language game to allow drawing and writing to be studied together. This gestural dimension of the linguistic move constitutes artistic practice in the terms of this thesis. The ramifications of its incorporation into the play of discourse are illustrated in a case study of the first part of Captain Cook’s Endeavour voyage of Pacific exploration from 1768 to 1771, the voyage to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus. Part One, ‘Intellectual Parameters,’ constructs a model of Georgian civil society that provides the foundation for the linguistic context in which the expedition’s manuscripts of texts and drawings will be read in the chapters of the thesis. Part Two, ‘Drawing Practices,’ applies this model to develop a detailed picture of the expedition’s working community by reconstructing the artists’ drawing sessions in the Atlantic. Part Three, ‘Discourse,’ interprets the drawings of Tupaia, the man who joined Cook’s voyage to travel to England, and his discourse through the bridging languages of navigation and cartography with several members of the expedition, to produce a new reading of the Endeavour’s purpose of discovery in the South Pacific and Cook’s claims to possession. i Declaration This is to certify that: (i) the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD except where indicated in the Preface. (ii) due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used. (iii) the thesis is fewer than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices. _______________________________________ Harriet Parsons ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my primary supervisor, Dr Susan Lowish, and my co- supervisor, Dr Chris Healy, for their guidance on academic writing, and my honorary supervisor, Dr Sheridan Palmer, for her voluntary support and encouragement over five-and-a-half years. I would also like to thank my supervisor during a year on exchange to the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at Edinburgh University, Dr Thomas Ahnert, for introducing me to the field of intellectual history which was key to my thesis, and his students and my flatmates at Ratcliffe Terrace for making me feel so welcome. My studies were supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and my travels were funded by the Alma Hansen and Eugenie La Gerche Scholarships, the Melbourne University Overseas Research Experience Scholarship, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences Graduate Research in Arts Travel Scheme and the School of Culture and Communication Research and Graduate Studies Funding Scheme, and I am grateful to Chris Healy for coordinating the mass of applications that made this trip possible. I would also like to express my gratitude to the librarians of the National Library of Australia and the State Library of New South Wales and, in Britain, the Natural History Museum, the School of Oriental and African Studies, the Society of Friends, the National Archives, the Royal Society, the Hull Central Library and Lincolnshire Archives for their assistance and use of their collections. Special thanks are due to Dr Nicholas Rodger who solved the riddle of Captain Cook’s slave, George Rupee, and was enormously generous with his time and advice; Margaret Stones who shared her practical knowledge of botanical drawing in a pleasant afternoon discussing Sydney Parkinson’s work; and Dr Lisa Ford who kindly met with me before I even began the PhD and set me on the path to investigating Cook’s claim to the possession of New South Wales. I could not have succeeded in such an ambitious undertaking without the encouragement, support and advice of many friends and colleagues: Anja Schwartz, Lars Eckstein, Kate Fullagar, Helen Charters, Edward McDonald, Paul iii Turnbull, Nikos Papastergiadis, Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, Tomislav Nikolic, Donald Holt, Sharna Galvin, Libby Heath, Chris Treux, Emily Manson, Jane Keehn, Michael Paton and my brother, Nick Parsons. Above all, I would like to thank my father, Philip Parsons, for teaching me how to read a text and never to take the meaning of words for granted, and my mother, Katharine Brisbane, for believing in the work and supporting it unstintingly, all the way. iv Contents List of Illustrations ........................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Methodology............................................................................................................................................... 1 Connecting Drawing to Text .......................................................................................................... 3 Historical Context .................................................................................................................................... 4 Structure of the Thesis ........................................................................................................................... 6 Historical Approaches ............................................................................................................................ 8 Collections and Archives .....................................................................................................................14 Part One: Intellectual Parameters ............................................................................................. 17 Chapter 1. Georgian Readings of the Endeavour Manuscripts .............................................. 19 William Blackstone’s Concept of Civil Society ...........................................................................19 The Manuscripts .....................................................................................................................................21 The Sea Journals ...............................................................................................................................22 Scientific Discourse in Daniel Solander’s Slip Catalogue ................................................35 The Art of Conversation in the Journals of Charles Green .............................................39 Chapter 2. Sydney Parkinson’s Artistic Administration ............................................................ 44 The Speed of Production .....................................................................................................................45 Distinguishing the Artists ...................................................................................................................47 The Assistants ..........................................................................................................................................55 King Fisher. Friendly Islands .........................................................................................................57 The Endeavour’s Model of Artistic Practice ...............................................................................62 Chapter 3. Charles Praval: The End of the Voyage of Exploration ....................................... 66 Publication ................................................................................................................................................67 The Scenic Views ....................................................................................................................................72 The Landscapes and Figures .......................................................................................................77 The ‘Neo-Classical’, ‘Romantic’ and ‘Theatrical’ Drawings ............................................79 The Drawings Attributed to Alexander Buchan .................................................................83 Part Two: Drawing Practices ....................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 4. ‘Discovery’ ............................................................................................................................. 90 Drawing at Sea .........................................................................................................................................90 The Ship’s Plans ..................................................................................................................................