Louis Choris (1795–1828) was a German-Russian painter and explorer.Louis Choris
. The Bancroft Library - University of California He was one of the first sketch artists for expedition research.

Biography

Louis Choris was born in

Yekaterinoslav Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War ...

, now

Dnipro Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inva ...

to German-Russian parents on March 22, 1795. In 1816, he visited the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

and the west coast of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

on board the Russian expeditionary ship ''Rurik'', serving as an artist with the Romanzoff expedition under the command of Lieutenant

Otto von Kotzebue Otto von Kotzebue (russian: О́тто Евста́фьевич Коцебу́, tr. ; – ) was a Russian officer and navigator in the Imperial Russian Navy. He was born in Reval. He was known for his explorations of Oceania. Early life ...

, 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." His illustrations on the Romanzoff expedition are therefore likely to faithfully represent the subjects he painted. After the voyage of the ''Rurik'', Choris went to Paris where he issued a portfolio of his drawings in lithographic reproduction and studied in the ateliers of Gerard and Regnault. Choris worked extensively in pastels and documented the

Ohlone people The Ohlone, formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the ...

in the missions of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

in 1816. Choris left

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1827 for

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

and was killed by robbers on March 22, 1828, en route to Vera Cruz, Mexico.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 The Honolulu Museum of Art (formerly the Honolulu Academy of Arts) is an art museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The museum is the largest of its kind in the state, and was founded in 1922 by Anna Rice Cooke. The museum has one of the largest single co ...

and the

Oakland Museum of California The Oakland Museum of California or OMCA (formerly the Oakland Museum) is an interdisciplinary museum dedicated to the art, history, and natural science of California, located adjacent to Oak Street, 10th Street, and 11th Street in Oakland, Cal ...

References

Literature

* Daum, Andreas W., ''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. * Ellis, George R., ''Honolulu Academy of Arts, Selected Works'', Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1990, 181. * Forbes, David W., ''Encounters with Paradise: Views of Hawaii and its People, 1778–1941'', Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1992, 23–62.

Gallery

File:Louis Choris (1795-1828) - Kamehameha, King of the Sandwich Islands by Louis Choris, (Russian), pen and watercolor.jpg, '' Kamehameha, King of the

Sandwich Islands The Hawaiian Islands ( haw, Nā Mokupuni o Hawai‘i) are an archipelago of eight major islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in the North Pacific Ocean, extending some from the island of Hawaii in the south to northernmost Ku ...

'', pen and watercolor by Louis Choris, 1816,

File:Louis Choris 'Kaahumanu, Woman of the Sandwich Islands'.jpg, ''Kaahumanu, Woman of the Sandwich Islands'', pen, ink wash and watercolor by Louis Choris, 1816,

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'' by Louis Choris, 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'', by Louis Choris, 1816, published 1822,

National Library of New Zealand The National Library of New Zealand ( mi, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa) is New Zealand's legal deposit library charged with the obligation to "enrich the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations" (''Na ...

File:Ohlone Indians in a Tule Boat in the San Francisco Bay 1822.jpg, '' Ohlone Indians in a Tule Boat in the San Francisco Bay'', by Louis Choris, 1816, published 1822 File:Choris, Tschuktschen.jpg, ''A Chukchi family in front of their home near the Bering strait.'' Drawing by Louis Choris in summer 1816. File:Port d'Hanarourou by Louis Choris.jpg, Port of

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the isla ...

as seen Louis Choris in 1816

External links

Louis Choris - American Journeys

{{DEFAULTSORT:Choris, Louis 1795 births 1828 deaths Artists from Dnipro Ukrainian illustrators Ukrainian explorers Male murder victims Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area History of the San Francisco Bay Area Ukrainian people of German descent