NEWTON, James (engraver).

A fine engraved portrait of Sydney Parkinson, the young Scots artist who travelled on the Endeavour as Joseph Banks's botanical illustrator. Following the death of Alexander Buchan, Parkinson took on the addition role of topographical artist, finishing 1300 drawings, whilst also compiling vocabularies for Tahiti and the East coast of Australia. Parkinson died from dysentery on the return voyage as the Endeavour made for the Cape of Good Hope in January 1771, and his portrait was used as the frontispiece to his Journals which were published first in 1773 and subsequently in an enlarged edition in 1784. This particular version of the portrait can be seen in the second edition.