Captain FitzRoy commanded HMS Beagle on the two remarkable voyages, on the 2nd trip he selected Charles Darwin as his naturalist and gentleman companion that led to the collection of evidence for the publication On The Origin of Species. FitzRoy paid for 2 artists Augustus Earle and Conrad Martens to paint the people and places encountered and these images underpin the seafaring stories.

James Taylor
A Former specialist in Victorian paintings at Phillips Fine Art Auctioneers and curator of paintings, exhibition organiser and author at the National Maritime Museum Greenwich