His later paintings showed previous expeditions, a new trip to the Matabele in search of gold, and early settlers in Cape Province, South Africa.
expedition
A coach-painter from Norfolk who emigrated to South Africa when he was 22, then went on expedition there, in Australia, and with David Livingstone.
A Lutheran minister who was in Indonesia from 1778-85, then visited Sri Lanka, and South Africa. His sketchbooks are full of wonderful watercolours.
During his five-year expedition to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Altai Mountains, they were presumed lost for a year, during which 5 of his team died.
The botanical and general artist to Sir Joseph Banks, botanist to James Cook’s first voyage in the Pacific. He didn’t live to see any of his works shown to the public.
In two early expeditions to the Americas, he gathered great amounts of information about flora and fauna, and the ethnography of indigenous peoples.
He was one of the first Europeans to try settling in what’s now Georgia in the USA. His paintings weren’t rediscovered for over 200 years.
In four years, he travelled over 4,000 miles in largely unexplored parts of South Africa, and collected more than 50,000 specimens. And he painted.
In 1832, he just sailed off to India to spend the next 7 years wandering around the Western Himalaya. When someone pointed a gun at him, he quickly painted their portrait.
It was only the fourteenth ascent of Western Europe’s highest mountain. Their provisions included 20 bottles of red wine and 18 chickens. His painting helped make mountaineering respectable.
