HM Bark Endeavour at Tahiti — Captain Cook's First Voyage

"The truest picture of an Arcadia"—HM Bark Endeavour at Tahiti captures the moment when Captain James Cook's bark arrived at Tahiti in April 1769 as part of a scientific expedition to the Pacific.

The Endeavour came to Tahiti to observe the Transit of Venus, a rare celestial event that would help scientists calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun. But the ship and crew also encountered a landscape and a Polynesian society that seemed to embody the ideals of paradise.

Naturalist Joseph Banks, aboard the Endeavour, captured that first contact in his journal: "As soon as the anchors were well down the boats were hoisted out and we all went ashore where we were met by some hundreds of the inhabitants whose faces at least gave evident signs that we were not unwelcome guests, tho they at first hardly dare aproach us, after a little time they became very familiar (...) in short the scene we saw was the truest picture of an arcadia of which we were going to be kings that the imagination can form."

The painting shows the Endeavour coming to anchor with local outrigger canoes approaching. The details reflect primary source material as well as reference to the excellent Endeavour replica. Signed GS in the lower right, and dated 2026 in the lower left.