Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde,...

Voyage Pittoresque Autour du Monde,...

G420 .C55

1822

At the time of his arrival in Hawai'i, Russian artist Louis Choris (1795-1828) was barely 22 years old. Sailing aboard the Rurick as the official draughtsman with the Kotzebue expedition to the Pacific (1815-1818), Choris is today recognized as one of the most prolific and important 19th century artists to have documented Hawaiÿi—in part thanks to the timing of his visit. As David Forbes notes in his Hawaiian National Bibliography, 1790-1900, Louis Choris’ illustrated account of his years aboard the Rurick “…contains a final and very beautiful pictorial examination of the Hawaiian Islands and of Hawaiian culture as it existed prior to the death of Kamehameha I in 1819 and prior to the abolition of the kapu, or feudal system of government, following that chief’s death.”
Included among 19 Hawaiian plates are portraits of Queen Ka'ahumanu, early views of Honolulu and, arguably, the most famous portrait of Kamehameha I, in which the aging monarch appears with a deeply lined face and gray hair, wearing a red vest.

149 pages

Hawaiian Collection, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library

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