Pomare V, Last King of Tahiti from Tahiti--Ensemble de 16 Photographies

Pomare V, Last King of Tahiti from Tahiti--Ensemble de 16 Photographies

c. 1890

The reign of the Pomare family lasted from 1773 until Tahiti was ceded to the French in 1880. Pomare V died in 1891. Charles Spitz was a jeweler and photographer whose military service took him to Papeete in 1878. He remained in Tahiti and became one of the best photographers of his era. His work won an award in l'Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1889. Spitz's photographs and those of others which Gauguin saw at the exposition may have influenced the painter to go to Tahiti.

Pacific Collection, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Library

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