Encounters with Hawai鈥榠: Art in an Age of Exploration, 1778鈥�1820
This exhibition brings together artwork associated with the European navigational voyages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These lengthy expeditions explored and charted the lands that dotted the Pacific, and they carried with them painters, draftsmen, scientists, and cartographers, who documented the flora, fauna, terrain, and inhabitants of the distant lands they encountered. The drawings, paintings, and prints they generated comprise the earliest visual record of Hawai鈥榠. The exhibition begins with the British painter and draftsman John Webber, who traveled with Captain James Cook鈥檚 third and final voyage, from 1776 to 1780.
This expedition brought Cook and his crew to Hawai鈥榠, and Webber, as its official artist, pictured their experiences and discoveries in an elaborate series of drawings and watercolors, which were published to illustrate the official narrative of Cook鈥檚 travels. Subsequent trips brought additional artists鈥攎ost notably the Russian Louis Choris and the Frenchman Jacques Arago鈥攚ho depicted Hawaiian religion and customs before and shortly after the fall of the kapu system. Taken together, these works reflect an era of great curiosity about the world and its inhabitants, and in their time popularized Hawai鈥榠 for audiences well beyond its shores.
This exhibition brings together artwork associated with the European navigational voyages of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These lengthy expeditions explored and charted the lands that dotted the Pacific, and they carried with them painters, draftsmen, scientists, and cartographers, who documented the flora, fauna, terrain, and inhabitants of the distant lands they encountered. The drawings, paintings, and prints they generated comprise the earliest visual record of Hawai鈥榠. The exhibition begins with the British painter and draftsman John Webber, who traveled with Captain James Cook鈥檚 third and final voyage, from 1776 to 1780.
This expedition brought Cook and his crew to Hawai鈥榠, and Webber, as its official artist, pictured their experiences and discoveries in an elaborate series of drawings and watercolors, which were published to illustrate the official narrative of Cook鈥檚 travels. Subsequent trips brought additional artists鈥攎ost notably the Russian Louis Choris and the Frenchman Jacques Arago鈥攚ho depicted Hawaiian religion and customs before and shortly after the fall of the kapu system. Taken together, these works reflect an era of great curiosity about the world and its inhabitants, and in their time popularized Hawai鈥榠 for audiences well beyond its shores.
Artists on show
Contact details
What's on nearby
