The most significant paintings of the MOD Art Collection are those commissioned by the Admiralty from the artists accompanying the voyages of exploration of Cook and Flinders. The best of these are on loan to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.
In 1801, at the age of 19, landscape artist William Westall found himself aboard the Investigator, the ship that Matthew Flinders was to command on his voyage of discovery to Terra Australis. Along with a team of artists and botanists, he produced a splendid visual record of Australia.
Flinders' voyage was intended to capitalise on Cook's discoveries some years earlier; in particular, Flinders was anxious to discover if Australia was bisected by a navigable waterway, which would have huge benefits for trade routes. This voyage, however, was not as successful as Cook's ending in shipwreck.
After his return to England Westall produced nine landscapes. He worked on them for three years completing the last in 1812. Westall shows scenes emphasising the strangeness of the explorers' discoveries, as can be seen from this painting, which hangs in Admiralty House, Whitehall.
Westall did not fullfil his early promise becoming mainly a book illustrator, he died in 1850 aged 68 while working on a painting of the shipwreck.