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| You are in National Portrait Gallery | Press releases | Portrait of Omai | |||||||||
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NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
AND Portrait Of Omai, Joseph Banks
and Dr Daniel Solander (c. 1775-6) The National Portrait Gallery and the National Museums & Galleries of Wales are delighted to announce that they will be collaborating to acquire William Parry's group portrait of Sir Joseph Banks, Dr Daniel Solander and the Tahitian Omai. A work of outstanding significance to Britain's heritage and cultural life, the painting has been issued with a temporary export bar by Arts Minister Baroness Blackstone. The National Portrait Gallery and the National Museums & Galleries of Wales have until 13 July 2002, subject to ministerial approval, to raise the £1,815,750 (including VAT) needed to save this work of art for the nation. Omai, Joseph Banks and Dr Daniel Solander has not been on public display in Britain since the early 1980s. Due to the good will of the owners, during the current fundraising campaign it will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery where it will be part of a thematic display which draws on the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum & Gallery of Wales. Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820) and the Swedish botanist Dr Daniel Carl Solander (1736-82) were two of eighteenth-century Britain's leading scientists. They were life-long collaborators and had travelled together on Captain Cook's voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. Omai (c.1753-1776/7), who had chosen to travel to Britain after making friends with crew members of the Adventure, was put into Banks and Solander's care after his arrival in 1774. Having studied Tahiti's language and culture, Banks and Solander could communicate with Omai and help ease his transition in to European life. Banks was an entrepreneur and a socialite who understood how to fuel public excitement. He presented Omai to George III, took him to the theatre and the races, and introduced him into aristocratic, intellectual and fashionable society. Combining personal charm and personifying the 'natural man' of Rousseau's writings, Omai had a lasting impact on the popular imagination of eighteenth-century Britain. His engaging character and reputation as a romantic figure was perpetuated in drama, poetry and the memoirs of Samuel Johnson, Fanny Burney, Horace Walpole and others. Parry's group portrait is the only work to represent the Tahitian as an equal among the company in which he rose to fame. With its scale, composition and grand manner setting, this painting celebrates the collaborative nature of scientific research during the eighteenth century. Painted in an era when Britain was on the brink of considerable colonial, intellectual and commercial expansion, this painting captures Britain's desire for knowledge of these new territories and their cultures. William Parry (l745-l791) was a portrait and history painter. He trained and worked both in London and Italy, while retaining a professional practice in Wales. Parry was the son of John Parry (c. l710-1782), the 'Blind Harpist' who published the earliest collection of traditional Welsh airs. William Parry became a pupil of Reynolds in l766 and remained a life-long associate. In l770, with the support of Wales' most influential and wealthy patron, Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, Parry travelled to Italy. He returned in 1775, and shortly afterwards began work on this group portrait possibly as a result of rekindling his acquaintance with Reynolds who was then also painting Omai. Baroness Blackstone said: "I congratulate the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museums and Galleries of Wales for their campaign to save this marvellous portrait for the nation. I wish them every success in their efforts to raise the necessary funds. The painting would certainly be a wonderful addition to their world class collections." Dr Lucy Peltz, 18th century curator at the National Portrait Gallery, said: "The National Portrait Gallery would be delighted to have this outstanding portrait which, more than any other work, brings to life the eighteenth-century excitement of the exploration and discovery of new lands and cultures. We are very happy to be collaborating with the National Museums & Galleries of Wales and will be jointly approaching all the usual grant-giving bodies". Oliver Fairclough, Keeper
of Art at the National Museums & Galleries of Wales, said:
"This picture was
in a North Wales collection from at least the early nineteenth-
century until 1966. It encapsulates the intellectual excitement
of the 1770s, itself strongly felt in Wales, which was soon to
transform our national life. We very much hope to acquire it
in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery, enabling it
to be seen periodically in Cardiff in the context of works by
William Parry and his contemporaries''. National Portrait Gallery
opening hours For further press information
please contact: Robin Gwyn, Director of Strategic Communications, National Museums & Galleries of Wales. Tel 029 2057 3487 email Robin.Gwyn@nmgw.ac.uk |
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protection. 07 October 2008 |
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