Louis Choris (; 22 March 1795 – 22 March 1828) was a German-Russian painter and explorer.[" Louis Choris". The Bancroft Library - University of California]
Biography
Louis Choris was born in
Yekaterinoslav,
Russian Empire (now
Dnipropetrovsk,
Ukraine) to German-Russian parents on 22 March 1795.
In 1816, he visited the
Pacific and the west coast of
North America on board the Russian expeditionary ship
Rurik expedition, serving as an artist with the Romanzoff expedition under the command of Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue, which was tasked with exploring a northwest passage.
In terms of his work as an artist, Choris is said to have "painted nature as he found it. The essence of his art is truth; a fresh, vigorous view of life, and an originality in portrayal."[ San Francsico One Hundred Years Ago - Translated From the French of Louis Choris By Porter Garnett, Retrieved 2007-04-07.]
Choris' works are now held in public collections by such museums as the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Honolulu Museum of Art and the Oakland Museum of California.
Legacy
Otto von Kotzebue named the
Choris Peninsula after Choris.
Gallery
File:Louis Choris (1795-1828) - Kamehameha, King of the Sandwich Islands by Louis Choris, (Russian), pen and watercolor.jpg| Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands, pen and watercolor by Choris, 1816, Honolulu Museum of Art
File:Louis Choris 'Kaahumanu, Woman of the Sandwich Islands'.jpg| Kaahumanu, Woman of the Sandwich Islands, pen, ink wash and watercolor, 1816, Honolulu Museum of Art
File:Louis Choris - 'Interior of a House of a Chief of the Sandwich Islands'.jpg| Interior of a House of a Chief of the Sandwich Islands, pen, watercolor and gouache, 1816, Honolulu Academy of Arts
File:Danse des hommes dans les iles Sandwich (National Library of New Zealand).jpg| Men's dance in the Sandwich Islands, 1816, published 1822, National Library of New Zealand
File:Ohlone Indians in a Tule Boat in the San Francisco Bay 1822.jpg| Ohlone in a Tule Boat in the San Francisco Bay, 1816, published 1822
File:Choris, Tschuktschen.jpg| A Chukchi people family in front of their home near the Bering Strait, summer 1816.
File:Port d'Hanarourou by Louis Choris.jpg|Port of Honolulu as seen by Choris in 1816
Literature
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Andreas Daum, German Naturalists in the Pacific around 1800: Entanglement, Autonomy, and a Transnational Culture of Expertise. In Explorations and Entanglements: Germans in Pacific Worlds from the Early Modern Period to World War I, ed. Hartmut Berghoff et al. New York, Berghahn Books, 2019, 70‒102.
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Ellis, George R., Honolulu Academy of Arts, Selected Works, Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1990, 181.
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Forbes, David W., Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 23–62.
External links
