Adam Smith’s ‘Impartial Spectator’ and John Webber’s Ship Cove

New Zealand’s South Island came into view on 10 February 1777 and for the fifth time in seven years James Cook made for a familiar location Ship Cove. It was a location from which he had observed the changes over time of its inhabitants and we can imagine the expedition artist, John Webber, busying himself with sketches of this new place and the people who lived in it. Eleven years later, in his London studio, in part from memory Webber composed Ship Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound. But, according to critics, Webber’s painting exhibits nothing of the significance of his cross-cultural encounter. In contrast I want to suggest that Adam Smith’s concept of the ‘impartial spectator’ provides us with a key to the enigma of Ship Cove just as it would seem a perfect fit for the enigma of James Cook, described by his biographer as exhibiting a compassionate and controlled imagination

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