After Johann Heinrich Ramberg
James Cook’s Tod
Germany, circa 1830
Private collection

This rare German hand-coloured lithograph depicts Cook as a martyr, resigned to the inevitability of his death and its sacrificial nature. He is depicted at the mercy of his assailants whose poses are reminiscent of those found in representations of the stoning of St Stephen. Cook has fallen to the ground, a classicised, white figure, illuminated by an almost divine ray of light in sharp contrast with the black mass of the hostile crowd. The Hawaiians are particularly ‘savage’: hairy and very dark, their white teeth and large cheeks shining. There are no ‘noble savages’ here, the argument is very much one sided: the purity of the hero is opposed to the raw savageness of his assailants.