Unknown artist
Representation of the murder of Capt Cook at O-Why-ee
London: printed for E. Newbery, 1781
7690.c.51 (frontispiece)

Produced in haste to complement the very first account of Cook’s death published a few months after the return of Cook’s ships to England in 1780, this image follows the narrative which is brushed over in the official account of the voyage, namely the fact that Cook, after having fallen into the sea, was dragged onto the shore and clubbed to death. This unheroic depiction follows the text with the intention to complement it, but not, as shown with subsequent images exhibited here, to write history. Despite its generic depiction of Hawaiian landscape, costumes and weapons, this work is probably, and paradoxically, the closest image we have of Cook’s demise.