Joshua Reynolds’ Portrait of Mai, painted around 1776 and standing nearly eight feet tall, is on display in the United States for the first time, at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, Smithsonian Magazine reports. It will be there until 14 March 2027.
Mai came from the island of Raiatea and sailed to England aboard HMS Adventure, under Captain Tobias Furneaux, during James Cook’s second Pacific voyage. He reached Portsmouth in July 1774, the first Polynesian to visit Britain, and the botanist Joseph Banks became his patron. Reynolds’ grand portrait of him is counted among the painter’s finest works.
For years its future was uncertain. In 2023 Britain’s National Portrait Gallery and the J. Paul Getty Trust bought it together for about $62 million, splitting the cost equally, so that people on both sides of the Atlantic can see it. During its stay it will also spend time at the Getty Villa, the museum’s second home in Malibu.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine