Oval mezzotint portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders R.N. 90 x 75 mm. With engraved caption and engraver’s details (within plate marked sheet measuring 228 x 142 mm.), fine. London, Joyce Gold, 30th September, 1814. The famous Naval Chronicle portrait. This classic portrait of Matthew Flinders was published in London little over three months after his decease.
The portrait was engraved to accompany the obituary titled ‘Biographical memoir of Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N.’ in the Naval Chronicle, and is based upon the famous cameo by an unknown artist now held in the Mitchell Library. In addition to the obituary with this portrait, the Naval Chronicle published several pieces relating to Flinders’ career, including an account of the 1803 wreck of the Porpoise and Cato upon the Great Barrier
Reef, and a later article of 1817 detailing Flinder’s observations on magnetic compass variations.
The obituary praises Flinders’ in glowing terms, lamenting his decease following the publication of the monumental A Voyage to Terra Australis: ‘At the precise period when this hardy and persevering mariner had just made good his title to be enrolled among those worthies of his profession…has he been cut off from amongst us in the prime of life, from maladies, originating from sufferings that consecrate his memory of that as a martyr to the cause of his country and of science.’
Description
Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), navigator, hydrographer and scientist, was the first man to circumnavigate Australia. His charts were so accurate that some are still in use to this day.
After sailing with the famous Captain Bligh on the PROVIDENCE, Flinders’ adventures brought him to Australia onboard the Reliance. In 1796 he explored the coastline around Sydney in a tiny open boat called TOM THUMB. He next proved that Tasmania was an island by finding and sailing through Bass Strait.
His most successful voyage came between 1801 and 1803 when he charted the coastline of Australia, completing and linking together other partial surveys to give us the first complete picture of the island nation.
Flinders recorded his voyage on the HMS INVESTIGATOR in Journal on HMS INVESTIGATOR, Volume 1, 1801-1802 and Journal on HMS INVESTIGATOR, Volume 2, 1802-1803.
Flinders was later shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef. Remarkably, he managed to navigate the ship’s cutter across open sea back to Sydney, a distance of some 700 miles, and arranged for the rescue of the marooned crew on Wreck Reef.
Additional information
Date | 1814 |
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Material | Ink, Paper |