Death of Cook - Definition and Overview

One of the most famous reproductions of Cleveley's Death of Cook hangs at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. It depicts Captain Cook as a peacemaker.

Death of Cook is the name of several paintings depicting the 1779 death of British explorer and European discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook. Most of these paintings seem to go back to an original by John Cleveley, painted in 1784, although other versions, like that of John Webber, stood model for later copies too. Such artworks were reproduced in paint and engraving over the course of modern world history. The much more famous reproductions, like the one at the Honolulu Academy of Arts (allegedly based on the Cleveley version), often depicted Cook as a peacemaker trying to stop the fighting between his sailors and the native Hawaiians that they had challenged in combat.

The original painting by Cleveley was discovered in 2004 and depicts Captain Cook as a violent man. The painting proved Western artists skewed history to show Europeans in favorable light.

In 2004 however, the original Cleveley painting was discovered in a private collection belonging to an English family. It was known that Cleveley based his original painting on eye-witness accounts of the actual event. The original happened to depict Cook also involved in hand-to-hand combat with the native Hawaiians. While the discovery of the original painting didn't change the way historians have thought about Cook's relationship with the native Hawaiians (Cook's violent nature had been reported upon by his contemporaries), it gave additional evidence as to how Western artists tried to spin their versions of historical events to reflect Europeans in a congenial fashion.

Worth approximately USD $200,000 to $300,000 the original painting was put up for auction by Christie's auction house in London, England.

Resources

• Discovery repaints Cook's passive death by Mike Leidemann, Honolulu Advertiser, July 17, 2004. (http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jul/17/ln/ln03a.html)

See also

• Marshall Sahlins, about some discussions, started more than a decade prior to the re-discovery of the original Cleveley painting, regarding the interpretation of the behavior of those involved in the historical event of Cook's death.