Portrait of Kamehameha I
After Louis Choris
Early 1800's
In 1815, artist Louis Choris set out to explore Oceania and to document, through his art, a passage across the Arctic Ocean aboard the Russian vessel Rurik, under the direction of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue. Their arrival in Hawai'i was met with a measure of wariness. The crew had no idea that Georg Anton Schaffer, a German professing to represent the Russian tsar, had just attempted to claim the Hawaiian Islands.
On November 24, 1816, Kamehameha I met with the crew of the Rurik, receiving them dressed in a malo, or loincloth, with kapa draping his shoulders. His confidence and friendly demeanor prompted Choris to ask permission to do his portrait. For the sitting, Kamehameha strategically changed into the red waistcoat and white shirt of a common sailor as not to align himself with any one country.
Choris created several watercolor portraits of Kamehameha that day, one of which resides in the Bishop Museum Archives. At least one other image made its way to Asia, where it entered into the established economic trade with the West. At this time, oil paintings done in a Western academic style by Chinese artists were very popular in Europe as well as the United States. Oil paintings of Kamehameha I, like this one, were available for purchase in Manila as early as 1817. One of these oil paintings was accessioned by a museum on the East Coast, the Boston Athenaeum in 1818, just two years after Choris created the originals.