Captivity and humanist art history: The case of Poedua

Third Text

Volumn 12, Issue 42, 1998, Pages 47-56

  Hoorn, Jeanette ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

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EID: 61149254676     PISSN: 09528822     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09528829808576718     Document Type: Article

References (23)

1. The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, describes, in the label exhibited with it, the version of the painting in their collection as having been painted on the spot in Raiatea. Rudiger Joppien and Bernard Smith say that the Greenwich picture was executed during the voyage, probably while Poedua was held hostage. See the catalogue entry which appears in their The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages, Volume Three Catalogue, The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery 1776-1780, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1987, p 403
2. William Hauptman, Captain Cook's Painter: John Webber 1751-93, Pacific Voyager and Landscape Artist, Kunstmuseum Bern, 27 March-2 June 1996,The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester 4 July-15 September 1996, p 43. And further, " Her discreet smile, perhaps consciously echoing Leonardo's Mono Lisa, creates an enigmatic quality that verges on the seductive in accord with the descriptions of her beauty by various subordinates of Cook " , p 147
3. J R Forster, The Resolution Journal of Johann Reinhold Forster, 1772-1775,. voliii, edited by Michael E Hoare, Hakluyt Society, 1982, London, p 522
4. The version entitled Poedua, Daughter qfOrea, King of Ulietea, Society Islands, held in the Rex Nan Kivell Collection, National Library of Australia, Canberra, is reproduced. See pl 13, Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, Yale University Press, 1985
5. Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1960, p 93. Poedua does not appear in the index to the new edition
6. Wallis describes the onslaught as follows: " ... an attack was now begun in which our arms only could render us superior to the multitude that assailed us... the stones were thrown with great force and dexterity with the help of slings, from a considerable distance each of these stones weighted about two pounds and many of them wounded the people on board. " Only by firing repeatedly upon the Tahitians were they able to extricate themselves. June 24, 1767, Hawkesworth, vol 1, p 445
7. See, however, the excellent work of Bill Pearson 'European Intimidation and the Myth of Tahiti', Journal of Pacific History, 4,1969, pp 199-217. By using a good many more examples than I have space for here, Pearson sees the women's gestures as " part of a strategy to overpower the intruders " , p 204 See also his The Reception of European Voyages in Polynesian Islands, 1568-1797, Journal de la Société des Oceanistes, 26, 1970, pp 21-54. I am grateful to Lee Wallace for drawing these articles to my attention
8. June 24,1767, Hawkesworth, vol 1, p 445
9. Peter Brooks, 'Gauguin's Tahitian Body', The Expanding Discourse: Feminism and Art History, Harper, New York, 1992, p 333. Published in a longer version in The Yale Journal of Criticism, 3, no 2, Spring, 1990, pp 51-90
10. See for example, G Robertson, The Discovery of Tahiti..., H Carrington (ed), Hakluyt Society, ser 2, no 98, London, 1948; p l66
11. See also Greg Dening's discussion of the eroticisation of Purea (Queen Oberea) and his dubious arguments about the 'othering' of Oberea. He appears to join in the joking which surrounded the discovery, in Europe, that Purea, like many of the people of Polynesia of the period, had tattooed buttocks. Mr Bligh 's Bad Language, Passion, Power and Theatre on the Bounty, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992, pp 265-268
12. Estimations of the number of casualties vary. George Forster claims 15 killed and a great number wounded. G Forster, A Voyage Round the World, in his Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, London, 1777
13. The works in question are: W H Pearson, 1969, op cit and 1970, op cit; Gananath Obeyesekere, The Apotheosis of Captain Cook European Mythmaldng in the Pacific, Princeton University Press, 1993; Greg Dening, 1992, op cit
14. Robert Langdon, The Lost Caravel, Pacific Publications, Sydney, 1975, p 136
15. George Gilbert, Captain Cook's Final Voyage: The Journal of Midshipman George Gilbert, edited and introduced by Christine Holmes, Caliban Books, London, 1982, pp 46-47
16. Rudiger Joppien and Bernard Smith in their catalogue The Art of Captain Cook's Voyages, Volume Three Catalogue, The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery, op dt, cat ref 3.149, p 403, describe the circumstances as follows: " ... Captain Cook enticed Orio's son Ta-eura, his daughter Poedua and her husband Moerua on board the Discovery and held them hostage in his cabin, until the return of the deserters. " Cook's journal has it differently: " Soon after daybreak the chief, his son and daughter came on board the three last I resolved to detain until they brought back the two deserters. With this view, Captain Clerke invited them on board his ship and secured them in his cabin, " Wednesday 26 November, 1777, in J C Beaglehole, The Journals of Captain James Cook on his Voyages of Discovery, The Voyage of the Resolution and Discovery. 1776-1780, Hakluyt Society, Cambridge University Press, 1967, part 1, p 248
17. J R Forster, Resolution Journal, op cit, vol ii, p 360. See also the account in 'Pickersgill's Journal', 7 September, 1773, in J C Beaglehole, The Voyage of the Resolution and the Adventure, 1969, pp 771-772
18. 'Cook's Journal', 9 September, 1773, Beaglehole, 1969, ibid, p 223
19. 'Clerke's Journal', 13 August, 1777, Beaglehole, 1967, op cit, part 2, pp 1317-1318
20. 'Samwell's Journal', 25 , November, 1777, ibid, pp 1076-1077
21. 'Clerke's Journal', ibid, p 1317
22. 'Cook's Journal', ibid, part 1, p 249
23. Bernard Smith, Imagining the Pacific in the Wake of Cook's Voyages, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1992, p 210