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In art as well as in other domains,
Eastern Polynesia formed a region apart. Unlike Melanesia, for
example, where figures are often abstract and polychrome, Polynesian
sculpture is rarely painted and relatively realistic.
But can we really talk of Polynesian art when it
was never art for art's sake ? It had above all a religious or decorative
function. The wooden or stone anthropomorphic statuettes called
"ti'i" or tiki had a religious significance, whereas articles
for useful or ornamental purposes were simply given a decorative design.
The Marquesans were the most skilled in the
decorative arts, for their artisans covered the whole surface of all their
creations with complicated designs often inspired by the shape of the
human body. It is therefore very surprising that their tapa are never
decorated, whereas Tongan and Samoan artists, their inferiors in the other
arts, were masters in designing material.
Petroglyphs are the least well known of the
Polynesians' graphic works of art. These carved stones can be seen most
frequently in the Society Islands. They represent stylized characters
including the costume of the leader of a funeral in Tahiti, or turtles and
fish in Bora Bora.
The famous tiki, the Marquesan name for the
"ti'i" of Tahiti, is found in various situations, and those
decorating combs or the handles of fans are very finely carved. Those that
were a little larger and made of wood were perhaps already used for
religious purposes. They are to be found as posts, as individual
statuettes averaging 30 cm in height, or as components of canoes. Although
we can imagine how some of these were used, (the cleat for example), we
still do not know whether these carvings, when they formed part of a
canoe, indicated ownership or a representation of the Gods indispensable
for voyaging.
The most coarsely fashioned stone or coral
"ti'i" were usually found on the marae or at the boundary of
sacred land. In the Austral Islands, where the decorative arts no doubt
were most characteristically Polynesian, important articles, usually made
of wood, were carved with fine geometric motifs. Human forms, especially
on drum bases, are completely original and have nothing in common with the
famous tiki, which seems today to be the only symbol of Polynesian art.
Modern Polynesian Art In order to penetrate the daily life
of the Cretan or Pre-Columbian lost civilizations, one merely has to
examine the decorations on their pottery. The paintings in the Lascaux
grottoes give us a glimpse of the life of the people who inhabited them,
what they hunted and how. To an alert-minded expert, a carved bamboo from
New Caledonia is a very valuable and amazingly precise graphic memorial.
We find, unfolded before our eyes, a series of scenes representing the
opening ceremonies of the yam season or various incidents during bonito or
harpoon fishing, from the "deck" of a large seagoing canoe.
There is no such thing in Tahiti.
Pre-European Tahiti, that is to say Tahiti before 1765, had its own epic
poets, learned genealogists, important speakers and expert costumers, but
graphic art was unknown and drawing totally ignored.
Apart from a few remnants of
engraved animals on stones, the ancient Polynesians have not left us the
slightest "picture" which could enlighten us as to their daily
life, their ceremonies, their dwellings or the landscapes they were used
to seeing, as well as their facial appearance. In Tahiti, there were no
pictures, no recumbent figures or headstones over the mortal remains of
the great chiefs and there were no enlightened manuscripts or high-warp
tapestries either to record the great achievements of the more or less
deified ancestors. Here in Tahiti, civilization was oral in nature; a
civilization of the spoken rather than of the written word. Thus it is by
oral and not by graphic means that the exploits of the heroes and the
sensational metamorphoses of the sky-gods are recorded. Furthermore, the
monoliths erected on the ancestral marae and not the banners floating from
lances or signet rings indicated one's clan connections.
If some sort of maritime cataclysm
or a gigantic tsunami had wiped French Polynesia off the face of the earth
towards the middle of the eighteenth century, all we would know of this
interesting population would be the finding of some archeologists, during
their local excavations, such as a few hatchet stones, fish hooks, stone
tiki or the remains of a marae.
THE "ARTISTS" WHO
ACCOMPANIED COOK ON HIS VOYAGES But after Quiros' and Magellan's
great voyages of discovery, journeys round the world were already being
organized and more particularly in the Pacific Ocean in order to find this
"terra Australis incognita" which seventieth century geographers
had placed in the southern hemisphere, so as to counter-balance the
northern hemisphere: Asia, Europe and America. From 1768 to 1779, James
Cook, during his three voyages, which made him one of the great names in
naval history, was successful in this connection and established the
location of the main archipelagoes in the Pacific.
The Admiralty gave him instructions
to return to England with as much information as possible on the countries
he was setting off to explore or discover; hence there were astronomers,
hydrographers, or botanists aboard and also recording-artists. Their
mission was to compile at each port of call as much graphic documentation
as possible in order to compensate for the inevitable imperfections of
written reports.
Thus Sydney Parkinson, William
Hodges and John Webber successively accompanied Cook on his three voyages
as official recording-artists. This trios of very select young artists had
received good academic tuition and was better equipped than the qualified
scientists to accept the rough conditions
They were asked to return with
graphic documentation on the important events of these expeditions and
scenes with natives, their costume sand dwellings.
Each one brought back satisfactory
documentation, which was used to illustrate the stories published on
Cook's three voyages in 1773, 1777 and 1784. The thirty plain or double
plates of stops in Tahiti or the Windward Islands of the Society Group are
signed by their three names. These were the first pictures that enabled
Europe to get an idea of the aspect of the Pacific Islands. The story of
Cook's "Voyages" were very widespread, re-edited, translated
into French, German or Dutch and were always illustrated with the same
endless series of reproductions. They were one of the best sellers of the
time...
WHAT DID THESE MEN SEE AND HOW
DID THEY RENDER THESE VIEWS? Their descriptions were identical to
Cook's: their cautions landings on the island with peace and understanding
in mind, their first encounter with the natives, the Organization of their
stops for watering, their bartering, their mutual presents, their journeys
around the islands and inland, and particularly the strange shows
performed by a different population: all types of feasts, dances,
religious ceremonies on the marae, offerings to the dead, nautical
exhibitions. They could not believe their eyes and sat down to draw all
this on their sketching pads. They rapidly drew, by means of a pencil or a
wash-drawing, the essential part of a scene and noted down very carefully
a hundred successive "remarks" on the draping of a costume, a
ceremonial hair-style, details of a musical instrument or the very precise
ones of a hut made out of tropical leaves.
These annotations were used as a
basis for more elaborate compositions such as the illustrations of Captain
Cook's "Voyages". The artist could not touch these drawings up
on the spot, as their time was too precious and limited. Moreover, working
on board was totally out of the question due to lack of space.
The drawings which English engravers
used for the plates to illustrate the "Voyages" were almost
certainly done in the artist's studios, after the exploring expeditions,
in peace and quiet.
Should you wish to get an accurate
idea of how Oceania seemed to a European artist, it would be necessary to
consult archive departments and private collections in order to find these
drawings, then publish and study them, as, and this is an important
remark, the illustrations of these "Voyages" that have been seen
so far have already undergone the interpretation of late eighteenth
century London engravers. They were accustomed to the paintings of the
Royal Academy as well as Greek or Roman style works of art; Oceania was as
unknown to them as China and as difficult to portray as the Moon. A dancer
was more like one at Covent Garden; a beautiful garment would look more
like those worn at Court and a mortuary bed decorated for parade on a
marae would be identical to an accessory for the final scene of Act III.
According to an English report and the ideas of that period, the scenes,
which were brought back from the South Seas, always had a tendency to be
modified.
In spite of the fact that these
artists (fellow travelers, companions) had been requested to return with a
precise and true description of these exploring expeditions, the final
result was always classical in style: Tahiti would look like Greece with a
tint of tropical exotics. Perhaps this is the way they actually saw
things, but their painting habits and techniques have betrayed them.
Tahitian woman with her fallals, fly-swatter and tattoos Will always be
painted in an "academic" style, shaped more like a studio model
than the Tahitian that she is, with her special and characteristic
appearance, gait and posture.
However, we must not take too much
notice of these accidental imperfections and must learn to skim over them.
Their documentation is extremely valuable to us as what would Tahiti know
about its origins were it not for these pictures? Let us, therefore,
continue to glance at these magnificent pages, which are the fruits of
apposite observation and sagacious efforts. These artists have represented
in a very direct manner and as objectively as possible, domestic or
ceremonial scenes which are the main core of Tahiti prior to the arrival
of Europeans; they sometimes even illustrated word for word such and such
a page of the "Voyages". What more could one possibly wish for?
Upon their return to England, and
their mission having been accomplished Hodges earned 250 guineas a year
for his work in the South Seas - our three artists began to toy with the
idea of using their documentation for personal profit and promotion in
their artistic careers. One began to see series of engravings and albums
full of drawings, which had been colored, using the techniques of that
period, such as Views in the South Seas.
But each one of them had the Royal
Academy in mind, which dominated all the arts in Great Britain at that
time, and wished to be spotted out by experts during the annual
exhibitions. Hence one began to see easel paintings of classical Tahitian
landscapes.
HODGES AND WEBBER Hodges is probably the
best known of all these artists. Several of his Tahitian oil paintings are
hanging at the Greenwich Maritime Museum. They had been ordered by the
British Admiralty. We find ourselves feeling as if we are being picked up
and transported to various parts of the island, when in front of these
pictures: Tautira, Pari and Matavai. One is reminded of some of Claude le
Lorrain's canvas paintings. Whereas Lorrain's pictures evoked a sort of
Golden Age in light effects, Hodges introduces us to what will soon be
known as a "South Seas mirage".
One of his most amazing pictures is a view, which
is not unfamiliar to us of the coast looking inland. The setting is quite
classical. A river in which one feels like bathing meanders across a
fragment of plain lying between two deep valleys. It is therefore not
surprising to discover in the foreground a few water nymphs, seemingly
Tahitian and tattooed of course but treated as academic subjects. The
right hand side is filled in by sculptures undoubtedly representing tiki.
To its center, a group of trees screens a background of high mountains.
The artist has taken a slight liberty towards the local topography. The
"peaks" of the peninsula are nowhere near as haughty and
grandiose, but the artist had to exaggerate them in order to make his
landscape lighter and more luminous as well as giving it an almost unreal
effect. The peacefulness of this Tahitian landscape of the "Golden
Age" is only interrupted by three high coconut trunks, which add an
idealistic touch to the whole picture.
But among Hodges' paintings, the only one worthy
of appearing in a Tahitian anthology would be the one of Cook's anchored
frigates at the bottom of Matavai Bay. The foreground is animated by the
occupiers of all sorts of maneuvering canoes. A fading light effect is
obtained in the background by the curve-like movement of hills sloping
towards the sea. This is a sort of retrospective study, the picture was
painted in England, of the bewitching skies and Tahitian atmosphere; a
very beautiful painting indeed.
Before we leave these first Tahitian painters,
let us not forget to mention John Webber who, besides his remarkable
illustrations of "Cook's third Voyage" also painted a portrait
of "Poedooa, the Orce's daughter, Chief of Raiatea". There is
nothing typical about this first painting by a European painter of a
Polynesian woman standing with calm and serene dignity, her head bent
slightly forward in spite of her bare chest, the white tapa wrapped round
her, the tiare flower adorning her hair hanging loose over her shoulders,
her tattoos and the fan she is holding in her right hand, her arm held in
a graceful manner, just like a dancer. An anthropologist could easily
mistake her for an Italian or a Maltese woman. Yet this is how Webber
pictured Poedooa and placed a bantering and at the same time enigmatic,
ironical and mysterious smiles on her classical face. Therefore, this
young princess about to die in the prime of her life, is, so to speak, our
Mona Lisa!
THE "ATLAS" ARTISTS OF THE GREAT
FRENCH EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS Official French painters
took over from British artists, much to Tahiti's artistic satisfaction. In
the second quarter of the nineteenth century, several successful maritime
exploring expeditions were organized for scientific purposes and for
glory, as Louis-Philippe's policy was one of expansion, which led France
not only to Caledonia but also to the Marquesas and to Tahiti.
The Navy was now using more comfortable ships
than those in Cook's days, thus making it easier to welcome
"artists" in better conditions. Within half a century, drawing
techniques had improved and watercolor painting had become an art in
itself; plate cameras were frequently being used and artists began to
produce superb color lithography, inserted in Albums recording the
Voyages.
Duperrey traveled on the "Coquille" to
the Gambier Islands and Tahiti in 1822. He had on board a man under the
name of Lejeune who left a series of amusing color pictures of Papeete in
those days and kept them in an "Album", now at the Navy
Headquarters in Vincennes. They are practically all unpublished,
unfortunately, as they bear strange and picturesque annotations.
Lejeune was somewhat of an amateur. Dumont
d'Urville's exploring expedition was a very carefully planned one: he
sailed through French Polynesia in August and September 1838 during a
voyage on the "Astrolabe" and the "Zelée". On board
were three qualified artists: the ensign Marescot, who died in 1839, and
had gathered a considerable amount of graphic documentation, Ernest
Goupil, the painter, who became Dumont d'Urville's official recording
artist and who also died, at the age of twenty-six, in January 1840 of
dysentery, in Tasmania. The third artist was Louis Lebreton, a navy and
watercolor painter; he was given the task of gathering and preparing the
voyage's iconography. The "Pictorial Atlas" appeared in two
volumes, in 1846. It was a magnificent iconographic document, such as one
might be able to compile with important official credits and it bears
witness of the expedition leader's stubbornness as well as the
lithographers' talent and more particularly, the virtuosity and artistic
talent of the artists themselves. As far as the French section of the
South Seas is concerned, this "Atlas" consists of thirty-one
plates : thirteen of Nuku Hiva, eleven of the Gambier Islands and eight of
Tahiti.
You occasionally find some of this lithography,
which has been extracted, from "Atlases" "ruined" by
vandals. But you must be able to peruse the whole Atlas at leisure and
study it closely to be affected by the charm and authentic beauty of these
pictures of the past. A whole era is then unraveled before our eyes:
sailing in the South Seas, official visits, recently converted notable
savages, their chiefs and ministers, their churches and marae, the South
Seas in the days of Pritchard and Queen Pomare.
Some of Lebreton's work in the South Seas is
mentioned in the catalogues of Parisian "Exhibitions", in the
1840's. Heaven knows whatever happened to them! For
more general information
on French Polynesia, go to: |
