Interpreting the Visual Evidence
The Europeans Encounter the Peoples of the Pacific in the Eighteenth Century
When European explorers
set out to map the
Pacific, they brought
with them artists to
paint the landscapes
and peoples they encountered. Later,
other artists produced engravings of the
original paintings and these engravings
were made available to a wider public. In
this way, even people of modest means
or only limited literacy could learn something
about the different cultures and
peoples that were now in more regular
contact with European commerce elsewhere
in the world.
These artists documented what they
saw, but their vision was also shaped by
the ideas that they brought with them
and by the classical European styles of
portraiture and landscape painting that
they had been trained to produce. On
the one hand, their images sometimes
emphasized the exotic or essentially
different quality of life in the Pacific. At
the same time, the use of conventional
poses in the portraiture or in the depiction
of human forms suggested hints
of a developing understanding of the
extent to which Europeans and people
elsewhere in the world shared essential human characteristics. This ambiguity
was typical of Enlightenment political
and social thought, which sought to uncover
universal human truths, while at
the same time, remaining deeply interested
and invested in exploring the differences
they observed in peoples from
various parts of the globe.
The first two images depict a Tahitian
named Omai, who came to Britain
as a crew member on a naval vessel in
July 1774. Taken three days later to meet
King George III and Queen Charlotte at
Kew (image B), he became a celebrity in
England and had his portrait drawn by
Joshua Reynolds, a famous painter of
the period (image A). The third image is
an engraving by two Florentine artists
after a drawing by Sydney Parkinson,
who was with James Cook on his first
voyage to the Pacific in 1768 (image C).
The two artists had never visited the
South Pacific, and their image is noteworthy
for the way that the bodies of
the islanders were rendered according to
the classical styles of European art (see
also the image on page 529).
Images
Questions for Analysis
1. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Does the Reynolds portrait, in its
choice of posture and expression, imply
that Europeans and the peoples
of the Pacific might share essential
traits? What uses might Enlightenment
thin kers have made of such a
universalist implication? |
|
2. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d How might a contemporary person in
Britain have reacted to the portrait of
Omai kneeling before the king? |
|
3. fiogf49gjkf0d fiogf49gjkf0d Do you think image C is an accurate
representation of life in the South
Pacific? What purpose did such imaginary
and idyllic scenes serve for their
audience in Europe? |
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