John Webber

John Webber, actually John Webber ( born October 6, 1751 London, † April 29, 1793 in London ) was an English painter and draftsman of Swiss origin. He was known primarily as a painter of the third expedition South Sea expedition of Captain Cook ( 1776-1780 ).

Life

John Webber was the eldest son of the emigrant to London Bernese sculptor Abraham Wäber. From a family emergency, he was already given the age of six in 1757 in the care of his unmarried aunt Rosina Wäber, the sister of the cabinetmaker Matthew Funk to Bern. 1767 to 1770 he was an apprentice at the landscape painter and etcher Johann Ludwig Aberli and then studied with a scholarship by the burger Lichen Society to merchants on the Paris Académie Royale Johann Georg Wille. Returned in 1775 to London, he became a student at the Royal Academy and worked next as a decorative painter.

Due to some flared nature and landscape images hired him in 1776 Daniel Carl Solander as expedition artist and illustrator for the first 3- year planned third Pacific expedition of Captain James Cook. By his death in 1779 and problems in the North Pacific and in Ireland the return journey lasted but to October in 1780. Thereafter Webber was responsible for the issuance of the imaged folio strap with 69 engravings, which appeared in London until 1784, two years after the text volumes. The reason for the delay was in trouble with the engravers, but also in the scene of Cook's death, which was contrary to the turbulent flow make a heroic impression on the audience.

The end of 1785 he was persuaded to be a set designer for the listed in the Covent Garden pantomime " Omai or a trip round the World." The scenery turned to those " noble savages ", Cook had returned to his home island. Webber tried with limited success to keep the play rather popular Klamauks close to the truth. The following year he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Royal Academy. In 1787 he published more pictures in its Views in the South Sea, which until 1792 included 16 illustrations. During these years he undertook extensive study trips to northern England, and to France and visited again to Switzerland, where he Bern - the city of his childhood - bequeathed some works and over 100 ethnographic collecting pieces of the cruise. End of April 1793, he died of kidney failure. Two months later, the rest of his large estate was auctioned at Christie's.

Exhibition

Gallery

Portrait of Matthew Funk ( mentor ), 1770

Woman from Eaoo ( Eua Iceland )

Princess Poetua, Tahiti ~ 1777

Oil painting of the " noble savage " Omai

Chief of Hawaii, 1787

Islanders of Atooi

Santa Cruz, Tenerife

Matavai, Tahiti

On Ulietea ( Raiatea )

Nocturnal dance of women in Samoa

Heiau at Waimea ( Kauai, Hawaii)

Canoe on the Hawaiian Islands in 1778 ~

Drums ( Tahiti), basket work and idol statues (Hawaii)

Fiction

• Lukas Hartmann: The Far Side of the seas. Novel. Diogenes, Zurich, 2009. ISBN 3-257-06686-4