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[BREADFRUIT] MILLER, John Frederick (after)?.
Specimen of the Bread Fruit Tree.
N.P. n.d., circa 1785- 1790.
Pen & wash drawing, 355 x 295 mm.; in fine condition, framed.
The breadfruit itself: the reason for the voyage of the Bounty and the proximate cause of the mutiny.
This fine drawing of the breadfruit is either by or based on the work of John Frederick Miller (fl.1759-1794), the artist employed by Joseph Banks to make drawings of some of the specimens collected on Cook's first voyage to the Pacific in the Endeavour.
The engraved version of this image appeared as plate 11 in the official account of Cook's first voyage (a copy is described at catalogue no. xxx), where in Chapter VIII on Otaheite (Tahiti) there is a long description of the discovery of the tree and the uses of its fruit: 'it must be roasted before it is eaten, being fully divided into three or four parts…'. William Bligh, who sailed with Cook as a young man of twenty-two, returned to Tahiti in 1787 as commander of the Bounty specifically to gather the breadfruit tree for cultivation in the West Indies.
This original drawing is inscribed Specimen of the Bread Fruit Tree, whilst the published engraving is not similarly identified. It is impossible to establish whether this unsigned drawing is the original drawing for the engraving or an eighteenth-century version of the same subject. In any case it has charm and is skilfully drawn.
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