Another canvas using the low classical foreground and symbolic sky where the figures feature as players in an imagined event – this event being the impending departure of Bounty.There is an atmosphere of sadness as an earnest Bligh explains to Chief Tynah his orders and his duty. They are the dominant elements of the scene. The water looks as languid and inviting as would a warm bath to an Eskimo ... the islanders take their daily swim while a necklace of coconut palms separates the lagoon and the sky. Goethe in his 'theory of colour' describes yellow as the predominant colour of the middle distance – a notion borrowed here.

23" x 15"