This conversation piece portrays the Tahitian Mai (or Omai) with Joseph Banks, future President of the Royal Society, and Daniel Solander, the Swedish botanist and Keeper of Natural History at the British Museum. Mai, a native of Otaheite had come to England in 1773 on Captain Tobias Furneaux's ship, The Adventure, after making friends with the crew.
Banks and Solander were leading naturalists of the day who accompanied Captain Cook on his first epic voyage to the South Pacific in 1768. They were called on to chaperone Mai. The Tahitian quickly became a social celebrity, dining at the Royal Society and being presented to George III. While Solander is portrayed seated at a desk, Banks is shown centrally, standing, gesturing towards Mai, who wears flowing white robes.
Parry captures the collaborative nature of intellectual and scientific enquiry of the period. He was a pupil of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose influence is discernible here. It may be through his master that Parry gained the opportunity to paint Mai, as Reynolds also portrayed the Tahitian. Parry painted this small-scale group portrait shortly after his return from a period in Italy in 1775.
