The National Maritime Museum, London announced a £1.5M appeal to acquire two oil paintings, Kongouro from New Holland and Portrait of a Large Dog, by the celebrated British artist George Stubbs (1724–1806).
Due to their significant place within British history and artistic culture, the paintings have been put under an export bar while the appeal is mounted to save them for the nation. Should the appeal be successful they will initially go on display in the Queen’s House, Greenwich in 2014.
The paintings (both of which are oil on panel measuring 24¼ by 28½ ins) were commissioned by the gentleman-scientist Sir Joseph Banks following his participation on Captain James Cook’s first Pacific voyage of ‘discovery’ (1768–71) aboard HMS Endeavour. Stubbs was the pre-eminent animal painter of his day and is now widely appreciated as an 18th-century European master. His paintings of the kangaroo and dingo are the most significant artistic productions directly related to Cook’s seminal voyage, and the earliest painted representations of these iconic animals in Western art. They were first exhibited together in London in 1773 and have remained in the UK ever since.
Exploration is a particularly rich area of collection for the National Maritime Museum, which already holds many objects relating to Cook’s voyages, including works by William Hodges (1744–97), who was appointed by the Admiralty to record the places discovered on Cook’s second Pacific voyage (1772–75); and the highly-regarded portrait of Cook by Nathaniel Dance (1775-76), which was also commissioned by Banks and was displayed along with the paintings of the kangaroo and dingo in his house in Soho Square, London. www.rmg.co.uk