Iles Sandwich, Maison de Kraimokov, Premier Ministre du Roi; fabrication des etaffles

Artist Marie-Joseph Alphonse Pellion

Datec 1825

Object number00005963

NameEngraving

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 316 x 467 mm, 0.05 kg

ClassificationsArt

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

Paris

DescriptionThis illustration is based on a drawing by Alphonse Pellion, one of the artists on board L'URANIE during Louis de Freycinet's Pacific voyage (1817-20) showing a house belonging to one of Hawaii's important 'chiefs' 'Kraimokov'HistoryLouis de Freycinet was a French naval officer who had participated in the Baudin expedition as the expedition's hydrographer/cartographer. As one of the crew of LE NATURALISTE, he was held in high regard by Captain Baudin and eventually entrusted with the command of one of the expedition's auxillary vessels -the CASUARINA, a 20 ton schooner purchased in Port Jackson- in which de Freycinet was tasked to carry out independent surveys of parts of the southern and western Australian coast during 1803. Because of Baudin's death in 1803 de Freycinet collaborated with the naturalist Peron (who had been on board LE GEOGRAPHE) on the analysis and presentation of the findings of the Baudin expedition; two volumes and several charts were published between 1807 and 1816. On the strength of this work, de Freycinet was promoted to the rank of ''Capitaine de vaisseau'' and offered command of another exploring expedition to complete the objectives of Baudin's original mission in Australian and South Pacific waters. In command of the 'corvettes' L'URANIE and LA PHYSICIENNE, de Freycinet sailed from Toulon in September 1817 and subsequently spent three years at sea. His expedition explored and charted Shark Bay in Western Australia as well as many islands in the East Indies and Pacific Ocean, including the Moluccan, the Caroline and Mariana islands. The expedition finally put in at Port Jackson in November 1819 before returning home via Cape Horn. The URANIE was wrecked in the Falkland Islands in February 1820. De Freycinet's voyage in the URANIE was especially remarkable for the fact that Rose de Freycinet, Louis' wife, accompanied him during the entire voyage. She had joined the expedition clandestinely, having come on board disguised as the son of one of de Freycinet's officers. A journal kept by Rose de Freycinet survived the shipwreck and was published in the 1930s; an English translation was published in 2003 by the National Library of Australia (A Woman of Courage, translated by Professor Marc Serge Rivière) Bibliography: F. Péron and L. Freycinet, Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes: Exécuté par Ordre de sa Majeste, l’Empereur et Roi, sur les Corvettes le Geographe, le Naturaliste et la Goelette le Casuarina, Pendant les Annees 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803 et 1804, vols 1-2 (Paris, 1807-16) L. Freycinet, Voyage Autour du Monde, Entrepris par Ordre du Roi ... Exécuté sur les Corvettes de S. M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne Pendant les Annees 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820: Historique, vols 1-2 (Paris, 1825) Marc Serge Rivière - A Woman of Courage (National Library of Australia ISBN 0 642 10676 2)SignificanceThe picture's subject is an Hawaiian village scene showing a chief in ceremonial costume standing in a doorway and a woman (his wife?) on the doorstep beating tapa cloth. The illustration is remarkable in that it also shows an 'olo', a traditional Hawaiian surfboard.