CL 40 - Cape Wilberforce Australia
Cape Wilberforce is a print by George Baxter and features exclusively in his ‘Cabinet of Paintings’ published by Chapman and Hall in 1836 ready for the Christmas market as a new year’s gift hence why some copies are dated 1837.
The lettering under the print states “Cape Wilberforce Australia discovered by Capt Flinders in H.M.S Investigator 1802 - Printed in Oil Colours by G Baxter (Patentee) from a painting by W Westall A.R.A”.
Cape Wilberforce Australia discovered by Capt Flinders in H.M.S Investigator 1802 - Printed in Oil Colours by G Baxter (Patentee) from a painting by W Westall A.R.A
The Cabinet of Paintings contained eleven prints by Baxter including the title page and was the first commercial book ever to be published where all illustrations were in full colour.
Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise and promote the name Australia.
H.M.S. Investigator set sail on 18 July 1801. Attached to the expedition were the botanist Robert Brown, botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer, gardener Peter Good, geological assistant John Allen, John Crosley an astronomer AND, as a landscape artist, William Westall. As an interesting aside the midshipman on board was Flinders' cousin by marriage, John Franklin later the subject matter of Baxter’s ‘Arctic Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin’.
William Westall is also known to Baxter collectors as having painted the originals to Baxter prints of ‘Polar Sky’ ‘Turn of the Monsoon’ ‘Avalanche at Lewes’ ‘The Boa Ghaut’ ‘A Greek Monastery’ and possibly in part ‘The Bird of Spring’ where the author, Mudie, credits Westall in the book but doesn’t state whether it is William or his step brother Richard. Richard Westall produced the original paintings for Baxter’s ‘Burns and his Highland Mary’ and ‘Crossing the Brook’.
William Westall was enrolled into the Royal Academy at the age of 18 and in his first year of study was asked by the famous botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who was a main instigator in getting this voyage approved by the admiralty, to take up the position of landscape painter.
Their Australian circumnavigation carried on till 1803 when the ship became rotten and was condemned. Westall carried on travelling to China and India returning to England in 1804. He then found that Flinders was imprisoned on Mauritius. Wikipedia then states “Realising that he would not be asked to work his sketches up for some time, he sailed once more to Madeira, and then on to Jamaica, returning to England in 1806.” This implies that during all his travels virtually all his work were sketches, only producing fully finished paintings from them on his return to England, nine such paintings were later commissioned by the admiralty.
Westall produced about 140 sketches and watercolours during his journey on the Instigator which are now held at the National Library of Australia (NLA), many being able to be viewed online. Although he was employed as a landscape painter Wikipedia states “in the latter half of the voyage he mostly neglected them in favour of portraying people and events”. Westall’s 140 works seems a small amount compared to the ships botanical artist, Bauer’s output of over 2000 detailed sketches. Some assessments of Westall’s sketches state they are so lacking in detail as to appear almost cursory, possibly blamed on Westall’s known disappointment at the barren Australian landscape and the fact that the trip had not taken in other parts of the South Seas.
Cape Wilberforce, named by Flinders after William Wilberforce the abolitionist, is situated at the very northern tip of Australia’s Northern Territory and very isolated. It is on the west side of the Gulf of Carpentaria, a 300 mile wide bay.
One of Westall’s paintings was titled 'Cape Wilberforce, looking into the Gulf of Carpentaria’. It was shown at the Royal academy in 1826 but its location is possibly now unknown. A sketch titled ‘A View of the Gulf of Carpentaria’ is known but shows no similarity to the Baxter print. The Royal Museums Greenwich references this 1826 painting and states “This geologically dramatic composition was also shown at the British Institution the following year and is now in the National Gallery of Australia” (NGA). They are most probably referring to the untitled Westall watercolour (acquired by the NGA in 1976) which is virtually identical to the Baxter print, but that is another story I will come to later.
In The Cabinet of Paintings each print comes with either verse (or in some adverts described as prose) by James Ollier or poetry by Miss Landon. Letitia Elizabeth Landon was a prolific poet and novelist first published at the age of 18 in 1820. She wrote many works including most of the poetry for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Books from 1832 through to 1839, which would have included the Scrap book for 1835 which had as the frontispiece Baxter’s Hindoo and Mohamedan Buildings. She just used the initials L.E.L. for the majority of her writing. Very little is known of James Ollier but as well as a writer he appears to have been in business as a publisher with his elder brother Charles between 1817 – 1823 most notably publishing some early works of Keats and Shelley.
‘Cape Wilberforce’ comes with a nine page story that is not specifically credited as by Ollier or Landon. Its full title is ‘Cape Wilberforce - The Avenger and his bride’ which initially seems somewhat un-associated with the print until the story is read. The writer references features in the print, the cave in the centre of the print is where the bodies of the thwarted lovers of the story are later found. They also describe the seals “perhaps a timid seal creeps up a ledge of rocks in search of its favourite lichen”. Unfortunately, that in itself is factually incorrect as seals are carnivorous and wouldn’t eat lichen. The story starts with Frederick Granville’s arrival in Sydney on the ship ‘Mary’ after leaving London in September 1812, 10 years after the scene the print is said to depict.
In James Taylor’s 2018 book, ‘Picturing the Pacific - Joseph Banks and the Shipboard Artists of Cook and Flinders’ he states that the story included references to Flinders Investigator voyage and it has been stated elsewhere that perhaps this is why Baxter used this as the subject matter to accompany the prose but on reading the story I can find no mention of HMS Investigator, Flinders or Westall.
The story doesn’t appear to have been used in any other publication and Baxter’s print was never published outside of this book. So what was first, the prose and Baxter chose an appropriate subject matter to accompany it or was the text written to complement Baxter’s work? As there appears to be no reference in the story to the factual 1802 voyage that is depicted in the print but there are references to the caves and seals shown in the print it must prove that the text had been written after the print was produced.
I stated earlier that the Westall painting of Cape Wilberforce at the NGA is available online and is an ‘exact’ likeness to the print. This is expected as Baxter is known for his accurate depictions of paintings. The NGA describe the watercolour as “signed and dated lower right in pen and black ink, 'W. Westall / 1802'. not titled” stating “Dimensions 17.8 h x 26.2 w cm” approximately twice the size of the print which is 9.3 x 13.9 cm but this would have been scaled down to fit the book.
The 'Westall' watercolour held at the National Gallery of Australia - signed W Westall 1802 - image courtesy of www.pastmasters.org
Now this is where it gets interesting and the whole reason for writing the article. On the face of it Westall painted a watercolour of Cape Wilberforce, signed and dated it 1802 and Baxter produced a faithful copy in his print.
Some years ago I came across a website www. pastmasters.org.au run by Mike Owen and he put considerable doubt on the authenticity of the Westall watercolour at the NGA. We discussed this over a number of emails and his arguments are strong.
Firstly he said it was very unlikely Westall would ever produce this view stating “it is a critically exposed and dangerous place, especially in a sailing ship. He came up from Melville Bay and turned around the double Cape between the islands & into the NW monsoon - all hands on deck.” We have already seen that the vast majority of Westall’s work was in the form of sketches intending to produce finished paintings, normally in oils, on his return to England which wasn’t until 1806. Very few watercolours were produced and presumably, if they were anything like the many sketches seen on the Internet, they are quite basic. More importantly Mike also states that Westall never signed any of his sketches that were produced on the trip putting doubt again on the NGA work.
Perhaps the most damning is the small detail in the centre of the print. Westall was employed as a landscape painter, although some of his later oil paintings have been criticised for their inaccuracy where he sometimes manipulated the foreground to create a better ‘composition’ in his finished work, you would think he would capture the detail in the view as accurately as possible and would definitely not add detail that he knew to be fundamentally incorrect. On the large flat rock in the centre of the print, you can just make out an Emu and two seals. Although the location of the Emu, on a low ledge next to a wild sea initially seems strange, the seals are even more misleading.
The Northern Territory has a tropical climate totally unsuitable for seals, they can only be found distributed along the temperate southern waters of Australia with a large colony on Kangaroo Island. Australia is a vast country, perhaps hard for anyone who hasn’t visited to contemplate, and tropical Cape Wilberforce is over 1650 miles north of the temperate Kangaroo Island. In comparison London to Moscow is approximately 100 miles nearer.
There is a Westall’s sketch, held at NLA titled ‘Kangaroo Island, seals’ which show two seals that are ‘identical’ to the two seals depicted in Baxter’s print. The later oil painting ‘A view on the north side of Kangaroo Island’ shows seals, be it in slightly different positions, Kangaroos, as you would expect, and also two Emu, possibly the reason Baxter added one to his print?
Right: Westall's sketch 'Kangaroo Island Seals' and a close up - both images courtesy of www.pastmasters.org. and above to compare the seals in George Baxter's print.
Conclusion:
Westall produced very few, if any, fully detailed watercolours during his trip, also with the location making it near impossible to draw such a view. The fact that the watercolour of Cape Wilberforce held at the NGA is signed when no others are is also damning BUT after sending Mike the draft of this article, he supplied a dated map that gives conclusive proof the date of 1802 on the NGA watercolour is totally wrong.
This map titled North Coast, Sheet II, Volume 3 and published in 'Voyage to Terra Australis' by M. Flinders Commander of H.M. Sloop Investigator 1802/3 was published in 1814 in London and shows the exact DATED route Flinders took. It shows that he passed Cape Wilberforce heading west in February 1803 and later came back, after the Investigator was condemned, in the H.M.S Cumberland in October 1803 so was nowhere near the Cape during 1802.
Map from 'Voyage to Terra Australis' by M. Flinders Commander of H.M. Sloop Investigator 1802-3. Published 1814 London - courtesy of www.pastmasters.org - with my own added text in red
It also confirms the conditions around the Cape that Mike had earlier described “You'll notice from the Feb. (heading west) track that it was during the NW - Wet Monsoon - Cyclone Season - so Investigator had to tack half a dozen times in a very tight, uncharted, seaway to round Cape Wilberforce with all hands on deck - no sketch pad in sight.”
So, the watercolour held at the NGA can not be by Westall or at very best has a fake signature. The Baxter Print was prepared before the text was written as that refers to ‘incorrect’ features in the print. It is stated as “from a painting by” Westall, the exact same credit line used for all the prints in the book. The extreme location and the weather at the time Westall was passing the Cape would have made any sketches impossible. The design of the print is also incorrect with Baxter including seals that can’t be found within many hundreds of miles of the Cape.
​
Taking into account that Baxter’s seals are faithful copies of a Westall’s sketch of ‘Kangaroo Island seals’ I feel the Baxter print is a pastiche of Westall sketches amalgamating general coastal rock structures, possibly from Westall sketches of the general area around Cape Wilberforce, and his seals from Kangaroo Island 1650 miles south in Southern Australia.
So what of the ‘Westall’ watercolour at the NGA? Apart from its slightly larger size it is as good as identical to the Baxter print. As it is near impossible to be by Westall but yet virtually identical in design to Baxter’s print, I feel this is Baxter’s own original watercolour over pencil that he used as a basis to prepare the print, it is very much in Baxter’s style. A number of Baxter’s related unique items found their way to Australia some 50-60 years ago. Perhaps someone at that stage saw an opportunity to (wrongly) add Westall’s signature to pass this off as his work rather than acknowledge Baxter?