Artwork Information

Settler artist John Gully received no formal art training, yet he was probably the most popular artist of his era in New Zealand. The atmospheric qualities of his watercolours were much admired by his contemporaries, who felt he effectively captured the rugged beauty of his adopted land.

This painting, an imaginative recreation of Captain Cook’s first visit to New Zealand in 1769, is designed to evoke a sense of awe at the sight of nature’s sublime forces at work – the Endeavour ploughs through rolling seas, dwarfed by a spectacular backdrop of mountains. (Lure of the Sea, 1999)