Portrait of Omai

What it is

This is an oil painting by Joshua Reynolds, completed around 1776, showing Mai (often called Omai), a young man from Raiatea in the Society Islands. It is now held by the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Mai travelled to Britain aboard HMS Adventure, part of the fleet with Cook's second voyage, and became a celebrated guest in London society before returning to the Pacific on Cook's third voyage.

Why it matters

The painting shows how Cook's voyages brought Pacific islanders into direct contact with British society, and how that contact was represented through European art. Reynolds dressed Mai in imagined Tahitian robes and posed him in a classical style, mixing real observation with European ideas about the