First Fleet artwork collection

View of an island as seen from off-shore, with a European ship flying the Dutch flag anchored with a small boat in the foreground, and surrounded by thirteen canoes. The canoes all have outriggers, one appears to be covered with a roof, and the two largest are also flying the Dutch flag. The island rises to a central hill with lower land receding to either side, the left extremity being labelled "(a)" and the right "(b)". The vegetation on the island is represented by mottled and stippled shades of green, olive-green and grey, with a central band of cultivated land on the central hill indicated by more regular stippling and the outline of square fields. The sea is represented by a gradated wash of grey and blue, with very faint washes of yellow and pink, overlaid with short horizontal brush marks in the foreground and in the shadow created by the island. The sky is faintly stained with pink and yellow, with an undulating wash of blue towards the top that echoes the shape of the island. The drawing is framed with a thick black ink line and a triple-banded border, the central band of which is coloured with a pink wash and contains the title panel at the bottom. The signature and date are located in the inner band at lower right. Most of the outer band appears to have been lost through the drawing having been cropped.

• George Raper]
• The drawing is inscribed in black ink in a panel below the drawing "HUMMOCK ISLAND, So Named by Cap.n Carteret, - by the Natives call'd Mondoroo. A small Island off the So. Point of Mindanao in Possession of the Dutch Company; Where we Waterd, and Refreshd in the Waaksamheydt. (a) SE & (b) W.t 1 Mile off shore".
• The drawing is signed and dated at lower right "Taken aboard the Waaksamheyd. GEO: RapeR 1791".
• The drawing is inscribed in pencil at bottom left with the number "28", at top right "27", and on the reverse "50".
• Raper left Port Jackson for England in March 1791 on the Waaksamheyd, captained by John Hunter. Hunter gave an account of this voyage in An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London, 1793), including their arrival at Hummock Island in August 1791 (pp.247-258).
• The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
• By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London).
• Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) Zoology Library and Picture Library: Picture Library order number 15128
• Miss Eva Godman donated 1962
• Data sheet available.
• Hindwood, K.A. 'George Raper: an Artist of the First Fleet', Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Vol. 50, Pt. 1, 1964 pp.32-57.
• Wheeler, A. and Smith, B, (eds.) The Art of the First Fleet and other early Australian Drawings. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1988 (pl.83, p.85).