Copy of a Portrait of Mrs Cook in Old Age

© the artist's estate. Image credit: Captain Cook Memorial Museum

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This copy of a portrait by an unknown artist is the only known image of Elizabeth Batts (1741–1835), Cook's wife. The original is in Australia. After their marriage in 1762, they lived first at Shadwell before moving to Mile End, which was quieter and not so close to the busy riverside. Soon after their marriage Cook returned to Canada where he was charged with surveying the coast of Newfoundland. For the next few years he sailed for Newfoundland every spring, returning in November or December to complete the work on his charts and drawings. The wives of naval men had to endure the long absence of their husbands away at sea. During their seventeen years of marriage, Cook and his wife never spent more than a few months together at a time. The Cooks had six children, only three of whom survived childhood.

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

Whitby

Title

Copy of a Portrait of Mrs Cook in Old Age

Date

c.1988–1990

Medium

oil on canvas

Measurements

H 43 x W 34 cm

Accession number

WHICC.10092

Acquisition method

commissioned copy from the artist from an original in Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

Captain Cook Memorial Museum

Grape Lane, Whitby, North Yorkshire YO22 4BA England

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