Alexander Buchan (artist) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alexander Buchan
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Oil painting showing Alexander Buchan, possibly a self portrait
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| Died | 17 April 1769 Matavai Bay, Tahiti
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| Known for | landscape and ethnographic art from the first voyage of James Cook |
| Patron(s) | Joseph Banks |
Alexander Buchan (died 17 April 1769) was a Scottish landscape artist. He is famous for being part of James Cook's first big sea journey. This trip happened between 1768 and 1771 on a ship called HMS Endeavour.
Buchan was one of the artists working for Joseph Banks, a botanist who studied plants. Buchan had a health condition called epilepsy. During the journey, he had two recorded seizures. The first happened while exploring in Tierra del Fuego. Sadly, Buchan died after his second seizure, soon after the Endeavour arrived in Tahiti. He was buried at sea.
Buchan drew many things, like landscapes, views of the coast, and pictures of people. He also drew plants and animals. He is best known for his drawings of the people from Tierra del Fuego. Some of these drawings were later made into prints for books about the voyage. All his drawings from the trip were kept by Joseph Banks. Today, you can find them in the British Library and the Natural History Museum, London.
Contents
Early Life and Art
We don't know much about Alexander Buchan's early life. People said he was "young" when Joseph Banks hired him. Banks was looking for artists for Captain Cook's voyage.
An expert on Banks, Averil Lysaght, found no proof that Buchan showed his art in London. However, Banks knew many people in Scotland. He might have heard about Buchan's detailed and realistic drawings from them. It's also not clear if Banks knew Buchan had epilepsy before he hired him.
We also don't know how Buchan learned to draw. An art historian named Bernard Smith thought Buchan probably taught himself. He might have copied other drawings to learn. There is an oil painting that might be a self-portrait of Buchan. If it is, it's the only art he made before the Endeavour voyage that we know of.
Journey with Captain Cook
On James Cook's first voyage, Joseph Banks brought eight people with him. This group included two artists, Sydney Parkinson and Alexander Buchan. Buchan was hired to draw landscapes and people. Banks wanted Parkinson to draw plants and animals accurately. He wanted Buchan to draw the scenery and the local people.
Both Buchan and Parkinson also drew views of the coast. These drawings were often used as maps to help sailors navigate. Captain Cook himself might have taught them how to draw these coastal views. The drawings made by Banks' artists were very accurate.
Buchan is not mentioned often in the journals from the voyage. Joseph Banks first wrote about Buchan on September 30, 1768. He noted that Buchan drew views of the Cape Verde islands.
Buchan's epilepsy is first mentioned in Banks' journal during a trip in Tierra del Fuego. The Endeavour ship was anchored in the Bay of Good Success on January 15, 1769. The next day, a group of eleven people went on an expedition. This group included Banks, Daniel Solander, Buchan, and four of Banks' helpers. They tried to reach the top of some hills.
During this trip, Buchan had an epileptic seizure. A fire was lit to keep him warm. The helpers stayed with Buchan while Banks and others went to find plants. On their way back, the weather got cold and it started to snow. This made it impossible for them to return to the ship that night.
On January 20, Banks visited an Ona village. Buchan likely went with him. Buchan's drawing of An Indian Town at Terra del Fuego shows this village. It was later made into a print called View of a Village in the Bay of Good Success, in the Island of Terra del Fuego. Banks described the village:
The town itself was situated upon a dry knoll among the trees... it consisted of not more than twelve or fourteen huts or wigwams of the most unartificial construction imaginable... They consisted of a few poles set up and meeting together at the top in a conical figure, these were covered on the weather side with a few boughs and a little grass, on the lee side about one eighth part of the circle was left open and against this opening was a fire made.
Death in Tahiti
From Tierra del Fuego, the Endeavour sailed to Tahiti. The goal was to watch the transit of Venus across the sun. The ship arrived at Tahiti on April 13.
Banks wrote in his journal on April 16, 1769, that Buchan had another epileptic seizure. He wrote: "Poor Mr Buchan the young man who I brought out as landscape and figure painter was yesterday attackd by an epileptick fit, he was today quite insensible, our surgeon gives me very little hopes of him." Buchan died the next day, April 17, 1769, at Matavai Bay.
James Cook wrote in his journal: "At 2 o'Clock this Morning departed this Life Mr Alex Buchan Landscip Draftsman to Mr Banks, a Gentleman well skill'd in his profession and one that will be greatly miss'd in the course of this Voyage." Cook also noted that Buchan had been sick with a stomach problem before. This was the first time Cook mentioned Buchan in his own journal. Cook also wrote that after Buchan's death, "there are now none on board who understands this sort of drawing."
Joseph Banks suggested that Buchan's body be buried at sea. This was done so as not to upset the local people. Banks wrote about losing Buchan: "I sincerely regret him as an ingenious and good young man, but his Loss to me is irretrevable, my airy dreams of entertaining my freinds in England with the scenes that I am to see here are vanishd." He felt sad that his plans to show pictures of the people and places they saw were now gone.
After Buchan died, his job of drawing people and landscapes was taken over by Parkinson and Spöring.
Buchan's Artworks
After Buchan's death, Joseph Banks took all his drawings from the voyage. Buchan's drawings of plants and animals are now in the British Natural History Museum. These include drawings of sea animals from Brazil and a cockroach from Madeira. The rest of his drawings are kept at the British Library. They were moved there in 1827.
Buchan's most famous works are his drawings of the people from western Tierra del Fuego. He made these during a stop at the Bay of Success. For a book called An Account of the Voyages (1773), Buchan's drawings were changed a lot. An artist named Giovanni Battista Cipriani made these changes. He added more people to Buchan's drawing Inhabitants of the island of Tierra del Fuego, in their hut. Then, Francesco Bartolozzi made prints of these changed images.
Cipriani and Bartolozzi were trained in classical art. Cipriani used classical ideas to change the people in Buchan's drawing. He made the "wretched" people in the hut look like "comely youth and wise old men." Another one of Buchan's drawings, of a village in Tierra del Fuego, was also made into a print. Sydney Parkinson's brother, Stanfield, got this drawing from Banks. James Newton made the print, and it was published in Parkinson's book Journal of a Voyage to the South Seas.
Images for kids
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A view of the Endeavour's watering place in the Bay of Good Success, January 1769
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Inhabitants of the island of Tierra del Fuego, in their hut, January 1769
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A View of the Indians of Tierra del Fuego in their hut.jpg
A View of the Indians of Tierra del Fuego in their hut, engraving by Francesco Bartolozzi after a drawing by Giovanni Battista Cipriani
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