A Hut and Family of the Inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego

Artist Alexander Buchan (Scottish died 1769)

Publisher John Cooke

Date1779

Object number00044266

NameEngraving

MediumInk on paper

Dimensions363 mm (wide) x 222 mm (high)

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection

Terms

DescriptionThis engraving was taken from a drawing produced by Alexander Buchan onboard HMB ENDEAVOUR during Captain James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific. It depicts the local inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, a group of islands situated off the southern coast of Argentina. Buchan was employed by Joseph Banks as a landscape artist for the voyage but died and was buried at Tahiti after suffering an epileptic fit. This engraving was published firstly in John Hawkesworth's 'Voyages' and then Charles Theodore Middleton's 'A New and Complete System of Geography'.HistoryDuring the 18th century, Captain Cook's voyages significantly added to European knowledge of the Pacific and the published account of the expedition proved to be extremely popular. This popularity was in part due to the many illustrations reproduced by the voyage artists - Alexander Buchan, Sydney Parkinson, Hermann Sporing, William Hodges and John Webber. Alexander Buchan's sketched the Haush people of Tierra del Fuego at the Bay of Good Success, during a visit to the island on Captain Cook's first Pacific voyage. HMB ENDEAVOUR was enroute to Tahiti to view the Transit of Venus. Buchan's drawing was first published in Hawkesworth's 'Voyages' in 1773, and this later version was published in Middleton's 'A New and Complete System of Geography'. Tierra del Fuego (Spanish for land of fire) is separated from the southernmost tip of South America by the Strait of Magellan. SignificanceThis engraving depicts one of the most well known of Buchan's illustrations. It was one of many drawings that contributed to the extreme popularity of the published account of Cook's expedition.