A NORTHERN museum has received cash to buy a painting depicting the travels of a famous 18th Century sailor.
The Captain Cook Memorial Museum, in Whitby, North Yorkshire, has received £3,646 towards the total needed to buy Thomas Gosse's Mezzotint. The money was donated by the independent art charity, the National Art Collections Fund.
The painting depicts William Bligh with the Tahitian King Tu.
Captain Bligh visited Tahiti in the late 1970s to collect bread fruit plants and export them to the West Indies to feed slaves. The trip came after he lost his ship The Bounty when his crew famously mutinied.
Francesca Rivett-Carnac, from the National Art Collections Fund, said: "In the picture, King Tu and Bligh oversee the transportation of the bread fruit trees from the shore onto the awaiting boat which will carry the plants to the ship barely visible in the background.
"While Gosse's picture tells of real encounters and events, it is nevertheless a slightly fanciful representation, revealing the romantic image of the South Seas prevalent in European art at the time."
The painting cost £6,024.
Published: 11/03/2005
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