Conducted casually over the past 10 months in preparation of Artists of Hawaiʻi 2013. Part II of III
Site: The John Dominis and Patches Damon Holt Gallery (before the current reinstallation), and Gallery 10 (Temporary Exhibitions)
Three screen shots and three scans. Three paintings of Hawaiʻi produced by Jules Tavernier in the 1880’s are presented with three postcards of Hawaiʻi produced almost a century later.
An excerpt from the wall text of the “old” Holt Gallery reads,
“The drama of Hawaiʻi’s active volcanoes, Kilauea and Mauna Loa, in the 1880s attracted tremendous interest among tourists and artists around the world. A body of work produced during this time based on volcanic eruptions and lava flows became known as the ‘Volcano School,’ of which Jules Tavernier (France, 1844-1889) and Charles Furneaux (United States, ca. 1835-1913) were two of the most influential painters.
“In the 1880s, the Volcano School emerged in Hawai‘i as a synthesis of Europe’s realist tradition and the romantic, symbolically latent penchant of American painting. The resulting images are often otherworldly views of Kilauea Volcano at night characterized by spectacular light effects and, at times, nearly abstract or surreal compositions.
“With the newness of Hawaii in the Western imagination, Volcano School artists…literally represented the birth of a new and awesome frontier for their audiences with theatrically choreographed depictions of spewing and flowing lava.”
Jules Tavernier died in Hawaiʻi in 1889.
The Volcano at Night (c. 1880s, Oil on canvas, Gift of Mrs. E. Faxon Bishop, 1959 [2582.1]), with postcard depicting Halemaumau Crater (c. 1970s), purchased on eBay from mikeingreensboro (aka THE POSTCARD DUDE), Greensboro, North Carolina.
View of the Pali (c. 1886, Oil on canvas, Purchase, 1996 (8090.1)), with postcard depicting Nu‘uanu Pali (c. 1970s), purchased on eBay from dalesstudiostore, Charlton, Massachusetts.
Sunrise Over Diamond Head (1888, Oil on canvas, Gift of Frances Damon Holt in Memory of John Dominis Holt, 2001 [9500.1]), with postcard depicting Waikīkī (c. 1970s), received from Celia Rae Hollander, Los Angeles, California.
See part I.