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Lot Essay
The official artist on Otto von Kotzebue's expedition to the North Pacific in 1815-1818, Choris, a Russian artist of German extraction, made detailed drawings of indigenous peoples and their costumes and artefacts, and of landscapes and coastal views, botanical and zoological subjects encountered. Only a few of these were engraved in Kotzebue's official publication of the expedition (A Voyage of Discovery, into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage, undertaken in the years 1815-1818, London, 1821), and Choris was therefore able to publish a number of drawings in his own account of the voyage (Voyage pittoresque autour du monde avec des portraits de sauvages d'Amérique, d'Asie, d'Afrique, et des îles du Grand océan..., Paris, 1822). In 1826 Choris brought out a second book based on the drawings of the expedition including twenty-four unpublished drawings. Of the original drawings: '[the] hundreds of sketches that Choris made during the course of the voyage (1815-18) have largely survived and are now divided between the Honolulu Academy of Arts; the Berenice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu; the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; the University of Alaska, Fairbanks; and the Peabody Museum of Salem. Choris's work offers a less studied view of the Pacific than the more formal drawings of Webber. Engravings after Choris's drawings illustrate Kotzebue's official narrative of the voyage, and in Paris the artist published his own lavishly illustrated folio atlases with hand-colored lithographs after sketches done on the Kotzebue voyage.' (D.W. Forbes. Encounters with Paradise. Views of Hawaii and its people, 1778-1941, Honolulu, 1992, p.56).
Kotzebue sailed from Kronstadt in 1815 on the Rurick, the Russian-sponsored scientific expedition sent out to the North Pacific to seek a northeast passage through the Bering Strait, to gather intelligence on military and naval strengths in the areas visited, and make geographical and scientific observations and discoveries.
Radak Islands, December 1816-March 1817
The first study of a seated Radak woman appears in plate XVI ('Interieur d'une maison dans les Iles Radak') of Choris's Voyage pittoresque. The expedition discovered the Radak Islands (a chain of islands now within the Marshall Islands) in December 1816 ('Le 20 decembre 1816 au soir, nous eûmes connaissance d’une terre.' (Choris)): 'It was at the beginning of the year 1817, in the extreme east of this province, in the group of Otdia and Kawen, on the island-chain of Radack, that we formed an acquaintance, and confirmed our friendship, with the amiable people who inhabit it. ... . The inhabitants of Radack are neither of large stature, nor remarkable bodily strength. Though slender, they are well built and healthy, and appear to attain a very old age, accompanied with a considerable share of cheerfulness, and activity. … Both sexes wear their long beautiful black hair neatly and elegantly tied up behind. … The skillful, elegant tattooing differs according to the sex; in each it is uniform. … With the women only the arms and the shoulders are tattooed. ... The women wear two longer mats, fastened with a string over the hips. ... Everywhere we met the picture of peace among an infant people; we saw new plantations, advancing cultivation, many children growing up, with a small population; the affectionate attention of the fathers for their offspring, pleasing unaffected manners, equality in the intercourse between chiefs and other men.' (O. von Kotzebue, A Voyage of Discovery, into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage, undertaken in the years 1815-1818, London, 1821, pp.96,159-65).
Bay of San Francisco, California, October 1816
The second study of Californian clothing relates to the costumes and a figure in the background of plate IV in Choris's Vues et paysages ('Jeu des habitans de Californie'). 'The costumes of the Indians is faithfully represented in the drawings made by M. Choris.' (O. von Kotzebue, Ibid, p.281). Kotzebue remarked on the Indians ('principally distinguished from the negroes by their very long, smooth, and coal-black hair.' Ibid, p.283), and their brutal treatment by the Spanish Mission.
'October the 1st. Favoured by a strong wind from N. and N.W., which sometimes blew a storm, we made a voyage from Oonalaska to California in a very short time. At midnight we saw by moonlight the Cap de los Reyes, and at four o'clock in the afternoon dropped anchor in Port St. Francisco, opposite the Presidio. ... California is a great expence to the Spanish government, which derives no other advantage from it, than that every year a couple of hundred heathens are converted to Christianity, who however die very soon in their new faith, as they cannot accustom themselves to the different mode of life.' (O von Kotzebue, Ibid, p.276). The expedition reprovisioned (via M. Kuskof, the agent of the Russian American Company, in the bay of San Francisco) before departing the American coast for Hawaii.
Hawaii, November 1816-March 1817, September 1817
The third study of the Hawaiian King Kamehameha (called Tamaahmaah in the narratives) with an attendant, seated before a grass house, was used for plate XVIII in Choris's Vues et paysages ('Entrevue de l'Expedition de M. Kotzebue avec le Roi Tammiamia, dans l'ile d'Ovayhi. (Iles Sandwich)'). Kotzebue recorded Choris taking portraits of the Hawaiian King on their arrival at Kailua Bay on 24 November 1816: 'The skill of our painter was much admired, he having, with great rapidity, taken portraits of some of the chiefs, which were extraordinary likenesses. Even Tamaahmaah looked with surprise at the work of M. Choris, but long resisted my entreaties to suffer himself, as they here express it, to be transferred to paper: probably because he connected some idea of magic with this art. It was not till I had represented to him, how happy our emperor would be to possess his likeness, that he consented, and, to my astonishment, M. Choris succeeded in taking a very good likeness of him, though Tamaahmaah, in order to embarrass him did not sit still a moment, and made all kinds of faces, in spite of my entreaties.' (O. Kotzebue, Ibid, p.315).
Kotzebue sailed from Kronstadt in 1815 on the Rurick, the Russian-sponsored scientific expedition sent out to the North Pacific to seek a northeast passage through the Bering Strait, to gather intelligence on military and naval strengths in the areas visited, and make geographical and scientific observations and discoveries.
Radak Islands, December 1816-March 1817
The first study of a seated Radak woman appears in plate XVI ('Interieur d'une maison dans les Iles Radak') of Choris's Voyage pittoresque. The expedition discovered the Radak Islands (a chain of islands now within the Marshall Islands) in December 1816 ('Le 20 decembre 1816 au soir, nous eûmes connaissance d’une terre.' (Choris)): 'It was at the beginning of the year 1817, in the extreme east of this province, in the group of Otdia and Kawen, on the island-chain of Radack, that we formed an acquaintance, and confirmed our friendship, with the amiable people who inhabit it. ... . The inhabitants of Radack are neither of large stature, nor remarkable bodily strength. Though slender, they are well built and healthy, and appear to attain a very old age, accompanied with a considerable share of cheerfulness, and activity. … Both sexes wear their long beautiful black hair neatly and elegantly tied up behind. … The skillful, elegant tattooing differs according to the sex; in each it is uniform. … With the women only the arms and the shoulders are tattooed. ... The women wear two longer mats, fastened with a string over the hips. ... Everywhere we met the picture of peace among an infant people; we saw new plantations, advancing cultivation, many children growing up, with a small population; the affectionate attention of the fathers for their offspring, pleasing unaffected manners, equality in the intercourse between chiefs and other men.' (O. von Kotzebue, A Voyage of Discovery, into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits, for the Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage, undertaken in the years 1815-1818, London, 1821, pp.96,159-65).
Bay of San Francisco, California, October 1816
The second study of Californian clothing relates to the costumes and a figure in the background of plate IV in Choris's Vues et paysages ('Jeu des habitans de Californie'). 'The costumes of the Indians is faithfully represented in the drawings made by M. Choris.' (O. von Kotzebue, Ibid, p.281). Kotzebue remarked on the Indians ('principally distinguished from the negroes by their very long, smooth, and coal-black hair.' Ibid, p.283), and their brutal treatment by the Spanish Mission.
'October the 1st. Favoured by a strong wind from N. and N.W., which sometimes blew a storm, we made a voyage from Oonalaska to California in a very short time. At midnight we saw by moonlight the Cap de los Reyes, and at four o'clock in the afternoon dropped anchor in Port St. Francisco, opposite the Presidio. ... California is a great expence to the Spanish government, which derives no other advantage from it, than that every year a couple of hundred heathens are converted to Christianity, who however die very soon in their new faith, as they cannot accustom themselves to the different mode of life.' (O von Kotzebue, Ibid, p.276). The expedition reprovisioned (via M. Kuskof, the agent of the Russian American Company, in the bay of San Francisco) before departing the American coast for Hawaii.
Hawaii, November 1816-March 1817, September 1817
The third study of the Hawaiian King Kamehameha (called Tamaahmaah in the narratives) with an attendant, seated before a grass house, was used for plate XVIII in Choris's Vues et paysages ('Entrevue de l'Expedition de M. Kotzebue avec le Roi Tammiamia, dans l'ile d'Ovayhi. (Iles Sandwich)'). Kotzebue recorded Choris taking portraits of the Hawaiian King on their arrival at Kailua Bay on 24 November 1816: 'The skill of our painter was much admired, he having, with great rapidity, taken portraits of some of the chiefs, which were extraordinary likenesses. Even Tamaahmaah looked with surprise at the work of M. Choris, but long resisted my entreaties to suffer himself, as they here express it, to be transferred to paper: probably because he connected some idea of magic with this art. It was not till I had represented to him, how happy our emperor would be to possess his likeness, that he consented, and, to my astonishment, M. Choris succeeded in taking a very good likeness of him, though Tamaahmaah, in order to embarrass him did not sit still a moment, and made all kinds of faces, in spite of my entreaties.' (O. Kotzebue, Ibid, p.315).