Portrait.

Line engraving. Note that the 1781 date given here is probably a misreading on this image (where it is obscure) of 1784. The print itself is the frontispiece from George William Anderson's popular large folio edition of Cook's voyages, originally published from 1784 to 1786 in 80 weekly parts. The inscription at the bottom that it was 'Accurately Drawn from an Original Painting and Engraved by Mr Thornton' is the only statement which might imply the existence of another version of Hodges's oil portrait of Cook (NMM BHC4227) from which both this and Basire's better quality frontispiece in the official voyage account of 1777 could have been drawn. Thornton's image reverses Basire's and the NMM oil's, and details of the dress and hair differ. This could however be accounted for by poor copying. The publishers claim is also sufficiently loose to cover the probability that this is basically a copy from Basire, perhaps via an inferior intermediate drawing. There is a poor quality oil portrait in the Mitchell Library (State Library of New South Wales, Dixson Galleries, ref. DG. 213) which appears to be based primarily on the Thornton image, with some reference to Basire's for the cravat in particular. In this the uniform has been freely varied from both prints and given white lapel reverses, which is wrong for the captain's undress (all blue, i.e. dark) in which Hodges and Basire properly show Cook. [PvdM 12/03]