European Vision and the South Pacific, 1768-1850: A Study in the History of Art and Ideas

by Bernard Smith

Bernard Smith (1916-2011) was arguably Australia's greatest art historian and one of the most important humanist thinkers internationally on ideas concerning cultural contact. His European Vision and the South Pacific, first published in 1960, showed how the ideas of the Enlightenment and the empirical structuring of scientific and geographical knowledge during the great eighteenth-century voyages of discovery affected notions of identity—both for Europeans and the Indigenous peoples with whom they came in contact. Not only did Smith's investigation of art, science, and imperialism of this period explore the conditions of frontier contact, it opened up the dialogue on de-colonisation and allowed us 'to think beyond or after it.' He was undoubtedly a pioneer of post-colonialism and the book remains 'a lighthouse' in pacific studies.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Art, Australia

287 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1960

About the author

Bernard Smith (1916–2011) was arguably Australia’s greatest art historian and one of the most important humanist thinkers internationally on ideas concerning cultural contact.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very fine study, in which Smith claims that Pacific exploration lead to a new empiricism in the graphic arts. You can also the the early development of postcolonial criticism in the work, as Smith takes a detached view of the racial and imperial ideas of British artists and explorers.

I would have appreciated richer treatment of Spanish, French, Dutch, Portuguese and German accounts of the Pacific. The title of the book is something of a misnomer. Expect for a few passages dealing with French sources, the book essentially deals just with British visions of the South Pacific. This would not be a problem, except that Smith makes large claims about when and how the cult of the noble savage rose and fell, and his argument would look a lot weaker if major Spanish and other sources were taken into account.

Within the more restricted terrain of British art and literature, however, this is a fabulous book.

[Julie]

Is supposed to contain the "best reproductions of art from Capt. Cook's journeys"