PORTFOLIO expressing his subjects accurately and with humanity, 138 rather than as alien creatures as many of his contemporaries did. The brig Rurik carried a crew of only twenty-seven, including naturalists Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz and Adelbert von Chamisso. They departed St. Petersburg on July 3, 1815, rounded the tip of South America, and made landfall in Chile. They visited Easter Island but were unable to stay due to the hostility of the inhabitants, after which they crossed the Pacific to winter in Kamchatka, being the first Europeans to touch and name the Romanzov, Rurik, and Krusenstern (Tikehau) island groups along the way. During the summer of 1816 they explored the Bering Strait and the Aleutian island of Unalaska, naming Kotzebue Sound, Escholtz Bay, Chanussi Island, Cape Krusenstern in the Chukchi Sea, and the city of Kotzebue, before heading to California in the fall to stock up on fresh meat, fruit, and vegetables. The expedition spent October of 1816 anchored in San Francisco Bay, giving Choris ample opportunity to portray its Indian and Spanish inhabitants in what were to become some of his most iconic images. From San Francisco, the Rurik continued on to Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands, where the expedition spent nearly four months (November 1816 to March 1817) cruising, mapping, and drawing. Here on November 24, 1816, he created at least three ink and watercolor portraits of the aged King Kamehameha I, the only primary source images of this famed monarch that exist. The expedition reached the Arctic again in the summer of 1817, but illness and unexpected ice cover forced them to turn toward home in July. A second visit to Hawaii that autumn gave Choris further opportunity to gather additional impressions and images. After visiting Guam, the Philippines, South Africa, and London, the expedition returned to St. Petersburg on August 3, 1818, having circumnavigated the globe. Upon his return to Europe, Choris produced a series of watercolors based on the sketches he did while on the expedition. After the official report (which featured his illustrations) had been filed, the artist was encouraged to publish a private edition of his drawings and paintings.2 In 1819 he went to Paris and arranged for Firmin Didot, one of the most talented printers in France, to reproduce his work using the relatively new technique of lithography. This volume features zoological, botanical, and geographical images; documentation of native artifacts (particularly boats); and studies of indigenous peoples and their lifeways. Completed in 1822 under the title Voyage pittoresque autour du monde ..., the sumptuous folio featuring more than 100 plates was sold by subscription. The Russian czar and the kings of France and Prussia were among his customers. The text by Choris, Chamisso, and Baron Georges Cuvier, (with observations about human skulls by Dr. Franz Gall) is in French and has never been translated into English in its entirety.3 A second volume by Choris, Vues et Paysages des Régions Equinoxiales Recueillis dans un Voyage Autour du Monde was published by Paul Renouard, Paris, in 1826. This book features primarily landscape views of the various places the Romanzoff expedition touched. After developing a successful art career in the Parisian ateliers of François Gerard and Jean-Baptiste Regnault, Choris again headed for America, this time on behalf of the Musée des Jardins des Plantes to draw the native inhabitants and environments of Mexico. Riding from Veracruz on the Gulf Coast toward Mexico City, he was killed when robbers attacked his party on March 22, 1828, abruptly ending the short career of an artist who documented the peoples he encountered with remarkable detail and veracity. NOTES 1. With the reduction of the polar icecap, a northeastern passage across the top of Siberia has recently opened up. 2. Kotzebue’s report was published in English as A Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Bering’s Strait… (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, 1821). 3. Excerpts can be found in Through Alien Eyes: The Visit of the Russian Ship Rurik to San Francisco in 1816 and the Men Behind the Visit, by Edward Mornin.(Oxford & New York: P. Lang, 2002). FIG. 11: “Ornements des habitants des îles Radak” (Ornaments of the inhabitants of the Radak Islands). Louis Choris, Voyage pittoresque autour du monde ... Paris, 1822, chapter 5, pl. III. © The Trustees of the British Museum. This article derives from research originally conducted by staff at the Wisconsin Historical Society for American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of Early American Exploration and Settlement (www.americanjourneys.org)
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