'The Landing of the Remains of the Honourable Col. Cathcart...', watercolour, Julius Caesar Ibbetson, ca. 1788

Watercolour depicting the remains of Colonel Charles Cathcart being brought to Indonesia for burial.

This watercolour was attributed to John Webber when it was first acquired by the museum in the late 19th century. It was thought to show a scene from Captain Cook’s voyage. It was only re-attributed to Julius Caesar Ibbetson in 1950:

The National Gallery of British Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, Part II, Catalogue of Water Colour Paintings by British Artists and Foreigners working in Great Britain, 1908, p.382. The watercolour was catalogued as: “John Webber RA: ‘An Incident in Captain Cook’s Voyage’ (In circulation).”

Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Water Colour Paintings by British Artists and Foreigners working in Great Britain, Revised Edition, 1927, p.569. The watercolour is catalogued as: “John Webber RA: ‘An Incident in Captain Cook’s Voyage’. Reproduced in colour as Plate XIX. In B. Lubbock’s ‘Adventures by Sea from Art of the Old Time’, 1925.”

Reynolds, Graham: ‘British Artists Abroad, 1. Captain Cook's Draughtsmen’, in: Geographical Magazine, xix, no. 10, Feb. 1947, 457-466 (see page 466). Here it is illustrated as ‘From original water-colour by Webber in the Victoria & Albert Museum’. It is described as “‘An incident in Captain Cook’s Voyages.’ The coffin of a member of the crew (perhaps William Watman, the gunner) is brought ashore for burial while natives watch respectfully from a distance”. Reynolds comments in the text that it presumably shows the funeral of William Watman in Hawaii (Owhyhee).

The Dept. file for this watercolour (indexed under Ibbetson) shows that the museum was informed in 1950 by Rotha Mary Clay of the existence of a “pen and wash sketch done on the spot” (belonging to J. Stewart Nicoll), and of the oil painting by Ibbetson exhibited at the RA in 1789, no.188. The Landing of the remains of the Honourable Col. Cathcart for internment at Angere Point in the Island of Java, in the collection of Lord Cathcart. The V&A's watercolour was observed to be “close to the original sketch, the figures being dispersed almost identically in all three versions”.

There is a press-cutting on the file of a letter from Rotha Mary Clay in Country Life, 14 Dec 1951:
“IBBETSON IN THE EAST INDIES. Sir, - When I was writing my life of Julius Caesar Ibbetson, published by Country Life in 1948, I was unable to find his drawing or painting known to have been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1789 under the title ‘Landing the Remains of the Honble. Colonel Cathcart for Interment at Angus [sic] Point in the Isle of Java’, which is mentioned in my chapter on Ibbetson’s work in the East Indies.

A reader, Mr. J. Stewart Nicoll, then drew my attention to a drawing in his possession – an outline sketch of the incident, made on the spot. Next, Lord Cathcart told me that the finished picture was hanging in his home, after many years in store. Then the intermediate stage came to light: a finished water-colour in the Victoria and Albert Museum, long hidden under an attribution to John Webber and twice published under the title of ‘Incident in a Voyage of Captain Cook.’ Lord Cathcart’s painting, of which I send you a photograph, is now on view at the Winter Exhibition at Burlington House. – ROTHA MARY CLAY, Southampton, Bristol.”

FA.446