History Review

The Western History Association Perception and Perfection: Picturing the Spanish and Mexican Coastal West Author(syf , U L V + : ( Q J V W U D Q d Source: Western Historical Quarterly , Vol. 36, No. 1 (Spring, 2005yf S S 1 Published by: Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University on behalf of The Western History Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25443099 Accessed: 28-07-2016 20:38 UTC REFERENCES Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25443099?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://about.jstor.org/terms JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Oxford University Press, Western Historical Quarterly, Utah State University, The Western History Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Western Historical Quarterly This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand Forty-second President of the Western History Association This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Perception and Perfection: Picturing the Spanish and Mexican Coastal West Iris H. W. Engstrand European and American artists and illustrators of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries painted or sketched the Pacific coastal region from Mexico to Alaska. They recorded contemporary scenes and native inhabitants and reproduced pictorially the fauna and flora discovered during scientific exploration. These illustrations offer significant insights into an important historical period. JLJefore there was PowerPoint, before DVD, before video, pay-per-view, slides, color prints, black and white photos, before all these forms of photography that we use now as both sources and artifacts to study the past?before all that, the images of our disciplines, and of others, were found in paintings and drawings. Artists and illustrators depicted the past?or the observable present?in pictorial documents that became the records of current events, journal ism, of reportage, and of scientific exploration, discovery, and adventure. Some were motivated by purposes of artistic representation?as aesthetic creations?and some of these were so fine and so elegant in their perception that they became works of art. Others were motivated by the need to report observations in the pursuit of science and in the quest for objective truth. Some of these are presently being used in scientific research to determine changing patterns of fauna and flora along the Pacific Coast. In either case, these images have captured for posterity the beauty and strange ness of a bygone era. Unfortunately, no significant first-hand images of the interior of the Southwest under Spain or Mexico exist until the time of the U. S.-Mexico War. During the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, it was the moment of Iris H.W. Engstrand, professor of history, University of San Diego, specializes in the Spanish and Mexican West and has written 21 books. She thanks Janet Fireman, David Weber, Rose Marie Beebe, and the University of San Diego and the Western History Association for underwriting the cost of color illustrations. Western Historical Quarterly 36 (Spring 2005yf & R S \ U L J K W " : H V W H U n History Association. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 6 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly scientific exploration that brought artists to the Pacific Coast. In the post-1821 period, it is largely foreigners, and the kind of people who carried sketchpads, who seem to have traveled by sea to California and the Pacific Northwest, but not overland to Santa Fe. As David Weber points out, in contrast to the mid-1850s, "no authentic graphic images of the desert Southwest were available to the American public in 1846." For this reason, the coastal West becomes an exceptional place.1 European and American artists of the Spanish and Mexican periods of the Pacific Coast varied greatly in talent, training, dedication, and purpose. Some were educated in art academies while others learned "on the job." Some were artists in the classic sense of the word, while others are best described as illustrators. Whichever they were, their purpose during the period of exploration and discovery was to record what they saw, not for personal recognition but for public knowledge. Those who accompanied scientists studying natural resources specialized in all aspects of botanical or zoologi cal drawing. Although some had apparently received extensive training in depicting religious themes or in painting portraits, the scientific illustrators on exploratory expeditions were expected to sketch natives, artifacts, landscapes, and structures as well as fauna and flora. Unfortunately, they seldom drew self-portraits or portraits of their companions. Although a few made on-the-spot sketches of personnel, and some portraits of commanders and naturalists do exist, most of these latter representations were drawn after the fact. Neither the artists nor their works are well known today.2 In recent years, historians and anthropologists have paid particular attention to the question of how to interpret these images. Although they seem to provide straightfor ward evidence of life in the West, they also express the artist's or illustrator's cultural background, attitudes, and assumptions. Art historian Kesler Woodward, for example, writes: "The watercolors, paintings, and drawings made from direct observation provide insights into the cultural schemata of the non-native artist-observers. Moreover, the ways those images evolved from rough field sketches to engravings or lithographs in the published accounts provide a level of insight into the impact of cultural contact 1 See David J. Weber, "Raising the Blindfold: The Earliest Published Graphic Images of the Desert Southwest," Southwest Art (August 1984yf + H Q R W H V W K D W E \ W K H P L G s hundreds of lithographs and engravings had been printed from on-the-spot drawings made by artist-explorers" (p. 50yf . 2 One merely has to look at Nancy Moure's California Art: 450 Years of Painting & Other Media (Los Angeles, 1998yf W K D W D F F R P S D Q L H G W K H H [ K L E L W R I W K H V D P H Q D P H W R U H D O L ] H W K D W W K e field of Spanish and Mexican art received less attention than it deserved?7 pages out of 530. However, more recent works have included a number of these paintings to illustrate the Spanish and Mexican periods. See Claire Perry, Pacific Arcadia: Images of California, 1600-1915 (New York, 1999yf - R D Q , U Y L Q H 6 P L W K D Q G - H D Q 6 W H U Q & D O L I R U Q L D 7 K L V * R O G H Q / D Q G R I 3 U R P L V H , U Y L Q H , CA, 2001yf - R V K X D 3 D G G L V R Q H G $ : R U O G 7 U D Q V I R U P H G 3 L U V W + D Q G $ F F R X Q W V R I & D O L I R U Q L D E H I R U e the Gold Rush (Berkeley, 1999yf 5 R V H 0 D U L H % H H E H D Q G 5 R E H U W 0 6 H Q N H Z L F ] / D Q G V R I 3 U R P L V e and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846 (Santa Clara, 2001yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 7 and into the cultural capacities of the European maritime powers to assimilate and portray the essence of others."3 One must be careful, however, to note the subtle and not-so-subtle changes in some of the images as they were recopied or evolved into other media such as lithographs or engravings. For example, Asian features become Caucasian, frowns become smiles, or clouds can appear. Also, it must be kept in mind that even though artists were often instructed to avoid "willful distortion, embellishment or interpretation," this was not always obeyed.4 Nevertheless, the Russian Imperial Academy of Arts reminded Pavel Mikhailov to "strive for accuracy, avoid drawing only from memory, and shun embellishment"?a common goal among illustrators.5 Since artists were directed to reproduce exactly what they saw, the images they produced have been treated mostly as ethnographic or historical evidence to show the clothing, weapons, housing, and ornaments of Natives, the installations made by Europeans, and the kinds of plants and animals that existed in particular areas.6 These latter scientific illustrations were doubtless the most exact, while the images of native peoples showed perhaps the greatest cultural bias on the part of the artist, becoming modified even more so in the published print. Because the paintings and sketches have such value as visual evidence, little discussion has appeared about their artistic quality, how they reflect the artistic conventions of their time and place, or how they compare with images of other native peoples during the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries.7 It is best to separate scientific illustrations from the other paintings and sketches because of the difference in the artists' objectives. [See Figures 1, 2, 3.] Spanish histo rian Carmen Sotos Serrano has expressed this difference as follows: The sketch, handmaiden of science, occupied an extremely prominent role dur ing the eighteenth century because the work of the naturalists was carried out 3 Kesler E. Woodward, "Images of Native Alaskans in the Work of Explorer Artists, 1741? 1805," in Enlightenment and Exploration in the North Pacific, 1741-1805, ed. Stephen Haycox, James K. Barnett, and Caedmon A. Liburd (Seattle, 1997yf . 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Iris H. W. Engstrand, "Images of Reality: Early Spanish Artists on the Pacific Coast," in Encounters with a Distant Land: Exploration and the Great Northwest, ed. Carlos A. Schwantes (Moscow, ID, 1994yf 6 H H D O V R , U L V + : ( Q J V W U D Q G 7 K H ( L J K W H H Q W K & H Q W X U y Enlightenment Comes to Spanish California," Southern California Quarterly 80, no. 1 (1998yf . 7 For additional references on Indian art of the American Period, see, for example, Patricia Trenton and Patrick T Houlihan, Native Americans: Five Centuries of Changing Images (New York, 1989yf Z K L F K L Q F O X G H V D G L V F X V V L R Q R I 5 X V V L D Q D U W Z R U N E X W O L W W O H D E R X W 6 S D Q L V K F R n tributions. Robert H. Ruby's and John A. Brown's Indians of the Pacific Northwest: A History (Norman, OK, 1981yf L Q F O X G H V R Q O \ R Q H G U D Z L Q J P D G H G X U L Q J W K H 6 S D Q L V K S H U L R G 6 H H D O V R ' D Y L d Nicandri, "Isaac I. Stevens and the Expeditionary Artists of the Northern West," in Encounters with a Distant Land, ed. Schwantes, 133-148 and Barbara Stafford, Voyage into Substance: Art, Science, Nature and the Illustrated Travel Account, 1760-1840 (Cambridge, MA, 1984yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 8 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly Figure 1. Reptilia. Ctenosaura hemilopha. Catalog No. 1259. Photo courtesy of Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, Torner Collection, Carnegie Mellon University. Figure 2. Osteichtyes. Carangidae. Oligoplites saurus. Leather Jacket. Catalog No. 1218. Photo courtesy of Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, Torner Collection, Carnegie Mellon University. Xikxochi?.llern*K?>Q. Figure 3. Bombacaceae. Bombax ellipticum H.B.K. Mimosa. Also cornsilk or shaving brush flower. Carolinea princeps Linn. Inscribed Xiloxochitl. Hernz. [Hernandez] F. 68-Bombax pentaphyllum Sp. N.-Carolinea fastuosa 206 DC 97. Catalog No. 629. Photo courtesy of Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation, Torner Collection, Carnegie Mellon University. through expeditions with maximum scientific standards. It was necessary that the collected species be drawn from nature before proceeding to their dissec tion or drying, processes in which the species would lose much of their typical characteristics. Because o? this, the drawing constituted the only tool capable of offering the future investigator the most relevant intrinsic characteristics, which the mere description, no matter how detailed it might be, could not per mit. Thanks to the precision and fidelity to the natural model represented, the botanist [and the scientist of whatever specialty] of then and of today can study in depth and complete a work of classification that without such [drawing] would be impossible.8 Colonial American naturalist and illustrator Mark Catesby pointed out in the 1740s that his lack of training in art was not a particular disadvantage: "As I was not bred a Painter I hope some faults in Perspective, and other Niceties, may be more read ily excused, for I humbly conceive Plants, and other Things done in a Flat, tho' exact manner, may serve the Purpose of Natural History, better in some Measure than in a more bold and Painter like way."9 Another interpretation with regard to the scientific 8 Carmen Sotos Serrano, "La hot?nica y el dibujo en el siglo XVIII," en La bot?nica en la expedici?n de Malaspina (Madrid, 1989yf T X R W H W U D Q V E \ D X W K R U \f. 9 Quoted in Martina R. Norelli, American Wildlife Painting (New York, 1975yf 6 H H D O V o Victoria Dickenson, First Impressions: European Views of the Natural History of Canada from the This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 9 Ip- - . -l1~ 1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. Figure 4. Fr. Ignacio Tirsch, S.J., A California Indian wom an carrying green seed pulp, and a California majordomo like those who came from Spain. Codex pictoreus Mexicanus (Tirsch codexyf & D W D O R J 1 R . 0033R. Photo courtesy of National Library of the Czech Republic. Figure 5. Fr. Ignacio Tirsch, S.J., Kind of fashion of those who came from Spain and now live in America. Codex pictore us Mexicanus (Tirsch codexyf Catalog No. 0043R. Photo courtesy of National Library of the Czech Republic. r?M k., Le AK ?> Figure 6. Fr. Ignacio Tirsch, S.J., Color and style of the dresses of California Indians when they are already Chris tians. Codex pictoreus Mexicanus (Tirsch codexyf Catalog No. 0044R. Photo courtesy of National Library of the Czech Republic. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 10 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly observer, as distinguished from the landscape artist, comes from Barbara Stafford. She writes that "[t]he scientific gaze entails a purposive curiosity that goes hand in hand with the utilitarian ideal of Spreading knowledge'. . . . The scientific observer looks at, not over, that which he explores."10 The artists?or illustrators?who accompanied these scientific observers were often scientists themselves, focusing on objects for the sole purpose of recreating them accurately for more intensive study. The artist's role, therefore, was to provide each expedition with visual documentation of the phenomena observed in nature's laboratory. A discussion of art in Spanish California should begin with the paintings of Baja California's Jesuit Father Ignacio Tirsch, missionary at San Jos? del Cabo from 1762 to the Jesuit expulsion of 1768. [See Figures 4, 5, 6.] Although not an "official artist" as described above, his illustrations, housed in the National Library of the Czech Republic, vary in quality but give excellent insight into native life, Spanish control, and natural resources during the time of Tirsch's residence.11 The watercolor paintings, which were most likely based upon direct observation, have been widely reproduced to illustrate works on Spanish California.12 Showing a kind of cultural overlap, however, one caption reads: "Kind of fashion of those who came from Spain and now live in America." Another states: "Color and style of the dresses of California Indians when they are already Christians."13 The faces in both illustrations are virtually identical. The depiction of "[a] California Indian woman carrying green seed pulp" alongside "[a] California majordomo like those who came from Spain" shows a fairly tall and muscular woman with a facial expression quite like the majordomo.14 Although Tirsch's paintings are fairly well known, little has been done to analyze them from a cultural standpoint, which would include an analysis of facial features, dress, available food, weapons, or other artifacts. A lesser-known artist of Baja California natives is Alexander-Jean No?l, a French illustrator who accompanied the party of Abb? Jean Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche from the Paris Academy of Science to observe a transit of Venus at San Jos? del Cabo in June 1769.15 The No?l paintings were discovered in the Cabinet des Dessins Mus?e du Louvre, in Paris, and feature sketches of Indians, the funeral procession following the death of Chappe, and a view of San Jos? del Cabo in 1769. The Indians are quite a bit smaller in stature than those drawn by Tirsch.16 16th to the 19th Century (Kingston, CA, 1992yf . 10 Stafford, Voyage into Substance, 40. 11 Many of these have been carefully reproduced in Ignacio Tirsch's The Drawings of Ignacio Tirsch, A Jesuit Missionary in Baja California, Baja California Travel Series 27, narrative by Doyce Nunis, Jr., caption translations by Elsbeth Schulz-Bischof (Los Angeles, 1972yf . 12 For example, The Spanish West, Time Life Books (New York, 1976yf + D U U \ : & U R V E \ , Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697-1768 (Albuquerque, 1994yf % H H E H D Q G 6 H Q N H Z L F ] / D Q G V R I 3 U R P L V H D Q G ' H V S D L U . 13 Tirsch, The Drawings of Ignacio Tirsch, Plates XLIII and XLIV, 115 and 117. 14 Ibid., Plate XXXIII. 15 Iris Wilson Engstrand, Royal Officer in Baja California, 1768-1770: Joaqu?n Velazquez de Leon. Photographs of original drawings courtesy of Doyce Nunis (Los Angeles, 1976yf . 16 Ibid., 4, 82, 86, 87 This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 11 N Figure 7. Probably Tom?s de Suria after Gaspard Duch? de Vancy, Reception of the Count of La Perouse at Mis sion Carmel in Monterey. Photo courtesy of Museo Naval, Ministerio de Marina, Madrid. With regard to Alta California, the first known non-native sketches are by the French artist Gaspard Duch? de Vancy who accompanied Jean-Fran?ois Galaup, the Count of La Perouse, on his ill-fated Pacific voyage from 1785 to 1788. Duch? de Vancy, "reared in Vienna," moved to London in 1784, where he came to the attention of La Perouse after exhibiting five paintings in the Royal Academy.17 Following the expedition's visit to the North Pacific Coast and Monterey in 1786, Duch? de Vancy's journals and completed sketches were forwarded to Paris by the hand of twenty-two year-old Barth?l?my de Lesseps who carried them on a year-long trek across Siberia, delivering the valuable papers to French authorities in Paris in 1787 for study and publication. The precious nature of de Lesseps's package became even more apparent when La P?rouse's ships were wrecked by a cyclone off Vanikoro, one of the Santa Cruz Islands, in June 1788, with the loss of all on board.18 Unfortunately, the full extent of the material that went down with the ships will never be known. After studying Duch? de Vancy's Reception of the Count of La Perouse at Carmel Mission of 1786, art curator Claire Perry concluded that the vantage point of a specta tor watching the reception?seeing a line-up of drab, half-dressed Indians in contrast to the French officers in elegant cutaway coats?would remind the viewer of the "anti-Spanish prejudice that characterized the relationship of the Northern European nations with their southern neighbor."19 [See Figure 7.] On the other hand, one could conclude from the same sketch that Spanish and French government officials were 17 John Frazier Henry, Early Maritime Artists of the Pacific Northwest Coast, 1741-1841 (Seattle, 1984yf . 18 See John Dunmore, Pacific Explorer: the Life of Jean-Fran?ois de La Perouse, 1741-1788 (Annapolis, 1985yf ' H / H V V H S V V M R X U Q D O S X E O L V K H G L Q 3 D U L V L Q Z D V L P P H G L D W H O \ W U D Q V O D W H d and published in London (1790yf D V 7 U D Y H O V L Q . D P F K D W N D G X U L Q J W K H < H D U V D Q G ' e Lesseps had lived in St. Petersburg with his consul-general father and had joined the expedition as an interpreter. 19 Copied by Tom?s de Suria of the Malaspina expedition in 1791. The original sketch has been lost and three copies, varying slightly from each other, are found in the Museo Naval, Madrid. Perry, Pacific Arcadia, 13. Perry, curator of American art at the Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, gives a cultural analysis of this and other works of art of the Spanish and Mexican era (13-7yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 12 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly ^^^^^HHP^if / // HT Figure 8. Jos? Cardero, Indian woman of Monterey. Photo courtesy of Museo Naval, Ministerio de Marina, Madrid. b^b^b^bHE,?eb^b^b^b^b^b^b^bI b^b^b^b^H a jR ^JRf Hi ?^KH B^B^B^B^B^B ?\^ ' ^B^B^BB b^b^b! ^ uT j^b^bI ^^^^HHp MWBBfc ^9bwv/'JbWbWbWbWI Figure 9. Apoiio Belvedere, c. 350-320 B.C. Marble 88 in. high. Roman copy after Greek original in Vatican Museum, Rome. Photo courtesy of Art Resources. being portrayed as equals at a ceremony where the missionary father could show off his Indian residents. The California Quail, Male and Female, is representative of the expedition's scientific drawings.20 It is also interesting to compare details of Duch? de Vancy's original sketch of natives at Port des Fran?ais in 1786 with some slight changes made in the later lithograph. The expressions of the Tlingit have changed from smiling and casual to showing concern and fear.21 The second major scientific enterprise to visit California and the Northwest Coast, and certainly one of Spain's most ambitious undertakings, was conceived and led by Alejandro Malaspina, a distinguished Spanish naval officer born in Italy in 1754.22 20 Charles N. Rudkin, trans, and ed., The First French Expedition to California: Lap?rouse in 1786 (Los Angeles, 1986yf . 21 Henry, Early Maritime Artists, 146-7. 22 See Donald C. Cutter, Malaspina in California (San Francisco, 1960yf D Q G ' R Q D O G & . Cutter and Mercedes Palau de Iglesias, eds., "Malaspina's Artists," in The Malaspina Expedition: ?n the Pursuit of Knowledge (Santa Fe, 1977yf 9 L U W X D O O \ D O O R I W K H 0 D O D V S L Q D H [ S H G L W L R n drawings are included in Carmen Sotos Serrano, Los Pintores de la Expedici?n de Alejandro Malaspina, 2 vols. (Madrid, 1982yf D Q G 0 D U " D ' R O R U H V + L J X H U D V 5 R G U " J X H ] H G & D W " O R J R & U L W L F o de los Documentos de la Expedici?n Malaspina (1789-1794yf G H O 0 X V H R 1 D Y D O Y R O V 0 D G U L G , 1985-1996yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 13 Figure 10. Tom?s de Suria, Woman of Nootka. Photo courtesy of Museo Naval, Ministerio de Marina, Madrid. The expedition spent time in Alaska and on Vancouver Island on the Northwest Coast and then remained in Monterey for two weeks from 11-26 September 1791. One of the two official artists on the journey to California was Jos? Cardero (a native of the Andalusian town of Ecijayf Z K R V D L O H d with Malaspina from C?diz as a twenty one-year-old cabin boy in 1789. Cardero was promoted to first boatswain and began doing volunteer sketching along the coast of South America. By the time the expedition reached California in 1791, he had drawn a series of zoological illustrations, general views, coastal profiles, native portraits, and daily activities. His Indian woman holding a basket is well covered, while a nearly nude male stands in the background with a female companion. Perry, in an interest ing comparison of the male warrior with a bow and arrow standing to the right of the fully-dressed Indian woman, states: "Nobly nude, with a form and bearing closely resembling those of the classical Apollo Belvedere, he embodies the eighteenth-century ideal of the Rousseauian noble savage, completing the other half of the population equation that was required for long-term Spanish settlement." 23 [See Figures 8 and 9.] Cardero, whose depictions of a Spanish soldier and his wife are unique in showing the uniform and dress in Monterey at this time, are quite well known. Cardero was later assigned to return to the North Pacific with an offshoot of the Malaspina effort commanded by Dionisio Alcal? Galiano and Cayetano Vald?s in 1792.24 He then completed a number of portraits of native chiefs along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and interior straits of the coast of present-day British Columbia. Tom?s de Suria, born in Madrid in 1761, was the second artist to accom pany Malaspina. He studied at the Royal Art Academy of San Fernando in Madrid 25 Perry, Pacific Arcadia, 12. 24 Aboard the Sutil and Mexicana, a Spanish contingent accompanied the ships of George Vancouver as they penetrated the inland passages of British Columbia in 1792 and later visited Monterey. See Donald C. Cutter, California in 1792: A Spanish Naval Visit (Norman, OK, 1990yf - R K Q . H Q G U L F N W U D Q V 7 K H 9 R \ D J H R I 6 X W L O D Q G 0 H [ L F D Q D 7 K H / D V W 6 S D Q L V h Exploration of the Northwest Coast of America (Spokane, 1991yf ' R Q D O G & & X W W H U 0 D O D V S L Q D D Q d Galiano: Spanish Voyages to the Northwest Coast 1791 and 1792 (Seattle, 1991yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 14 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly beginning at age 12 under Jer?nimo An tonio Gil, accompanying his mentor to Mexico in 1788 when Gil was named director of the Mexican Art Academy of San Carlos in the capital city of New Spain. Suria, who became an engraver in the Mexican mint, was excited by the op portunity to travel with Malaspina to the north.25 His portraits of natives at Mulgrave Sound (Yakutat Bayyf D Q G 1 R R W N D 6 R X Q d are an important visual and ethnographic record. [See Figures 10 and 11.] When Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra was ordered by the Viceroy of Mexico to proceed to the Pacific Northwest to meet with George Vancouver in 1792 to settle the boundary dispute known as the Nootka Sound Controversy, he was accompanied by Mexican botanists Jos? Mariano Mozi?o and Jos? Maldonado, and artist Atanasio Echeverr?a y Godoy. Echeverr?a, was born in Mexico and then, in his mid-twenties, had trained at the Art 1 ' l.yiMin i m i i ,i Figure 11. Tom?s de Suria, Maquinna, Chief of Nootka. Photo courtesy of Museo de Am?rica, Madrid. Academy of San Carlos. Because his scientific illustrations, which included hundreds of plants, birds, butterflies, and fish, were unparalleled for their beauty and accuracy, he earned a reputation as the most outstanding artist working for the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain.26 During his four-month stay at Nootka, and later Monterey, Echeverr?a produced over twenty sketches of general scenes, as well as botanical and zoological drawings.27 [See Figure 12.] Alexander von Humboldt later remarked that "Se?or Echeverr?a, painter of plants and animals, and whose works can compete with the most perfect that Europe has produced of this class" occupied "a very distinguished place" in his field "without having left [his] native country."28 There are few scenes painted by Spanish artists after this time. John Sykes, who accompanied Vancouver as a midshipman from 1792 to 1794 on board the Discovery, made most of the drawings during the expedition that were later 25 Serrano, Los Pintores, vol. I, p. 139. 26 Jos? Mariano Mozi?o, Noticias de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound in 1792, trans, and ed. by Iris H. Wilson Engstrand (Seattle, 1991yf S [ O Y L L L . 27 Ibid. When the sketches were returned to Mexico City, companions of Echeverr?a at the Art Academy of San Carlos made duplicate copies of most of them. A complete set is housed in the Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores in Madrid. 28 Henry, Early Maritime Artists, 166 and Engstrand, "Images o? Reality," 62-3. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 15 r07 ?: - V. 0 -- Figure 12. Atanasio Eche verr?a, View of the Interior of Chief Maquinna's lodge at Nootka Sound. Photo cour tesy of Museo de Asuntos Exteriores, Madrid. \! I1 W I Figure 13. Ascribed to Wilhelm Tilesius von Tilenau and George von Langsdorff, Dance of the Indians at Mission San Jos?, 1806. Photo courtesy of Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. engraved. Sykes, who sketched Monterey, seems to have had little artistic training, having begun his naval career as a captain's servant at the age of nine in 1783. At the expedition's return, Sykes received a promotion to lieutenant and, after having served on numerous vessels, retired as an admiral "in his 84th year."29 Sykes portrayed a tranquil Monterey with verdant, rolling hills where Spanish soldiers herded livestock next to the mission and military garrison. The Russian presence in California began in 1806, when the Czar's chamberlain, Nicolai Petrovitch Rezanov, arrived in San Francisco to negotiate a treaty with the Spanish governor of California to supply food to Russia's fur-trading outpost at Sitka. German naturalist Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, a physician who had practiced 29 Alejandro de Humboldt, Ensayo Pol?tico Sobre el Reino de la Nueva Espa?a (Mexico, 1966yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 16 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly Figure 14. William Smyth, The Presidio and Pueblo of Monterey, 1825. Photo courtesy of Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. medicine in Lisbon until 1803, accompanied Rezanov. Compelled by his interest in botany, he joined the Russian mission to the Aleutian Islands and eastward to the American mainland. Von Langsdorff described his visit to San Francisco in detail, especially his excursion by boat to the mission at San Jos?. Accompanying Langsdorff on his excursion to the mission was Wilhelm Tilasius von Tilenau, also a naturalist and an artist on the Aleutian expedition. At San Jose, von Tilenau sketched the Indians dancing. [See Figure 13.] His painting "emphasizes [the] strangeness of six California Indians shown in typical costume, each dressed and decorated in a different way." According to Perry, their "stocky forms" and "their bodies painted in sections, and their individualized headgear repudiate European ideals of regularity and symmetry and the examples of classical antiquity that had inspired Jos? Cardero's portrait of a male Indian in 1791."30 Von Langsdorff returned to Siberia in June 1806, and eventually arrived in St. Petersburg in March 1808. After a varied career, he died in Germany in 1852 at the age of 78.31 Artist Louis Choris visited California on a Russian expedition commanded by Otto von Kotzebue aboard the Rurik from 1815 to 1818. Sometimes referred to as 50 Perry, Pacific Arcadia, 16-7. Even though von Langsdorff is often credited with having painted A Dance of the Indians at the Mission of St. Joseph [San Jos?] in New California, it is cred ited to von Tilenau in the Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early Californian and Western American Pictorial Material, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. M Ibid., 16. For background information on von Langsdorff, see Trenton and Houlihan, Native Americans, 167. See also Views collected by G.H. von Langsdorff during his voyage around the world from 1803 to 1807. Six drawings: chiefly in sepia, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley and G.H. von Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World During the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, and 1807 (New York, 1968yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 17 French, Chor is was actually of German origin; born in 1795, in the Russian city of Jekaterinoslaff, he studied art in Moscow, and was just twenty when he was selected to accompany Kotzebue on the Rurik?1 Also on board was Louis Adelbert von Chamisso, one of the two naturalists who wrote A Sojourn at San Francisco Bay, 1816. This volume, published by the Book Club of California in 1936, was illustrated with Choris's series of drawings, first published in French in 1822.33 These paintings of Native Californians have been reproduced in a number of works and are some of the best known first-hand representations of Indian life. Curiously, with the exception of religious themes, there seem to be few paintings, or even sketches, of California by Spanish or Mexican artists after 1821. There are, however, a number of paintings by foreign visitors, beginning with William Smyth and Richard Brydges Beechey, both of whom accompanied Captain Frederick William Beechey aboard the H. M. S. Blossom on an offshoot of a British polar voyage in 1825. Arriving in San Francisco on 6 November 1826, Richard Beechey remained fifty-two days, commenting in depth about mission life and completing a detailed survey of San Francisco Bay. William Smyth, senior mate, produced a total of eighty-eight drawings, nine of which were reproduced in Beechey's Narrative. In the Presidio and Pueblo of Monterey, 1825, Smyth places himself in the lower right-hand corner with a sketch pad and two witnesses. Again, as Sykes before him, Smyth shows the countryside as virtually empty, and the "grassy, undulating terrain beckons to the farmer and the plow. . . . "35 [See Figure 14-] The painting of San Francisco Bay and the pre sidio by Richard Beechey also shows a peaceful scene with cattle on a hillside in the foreground and two men and a horse at the edge of the water. The country side was described by brother Frederick Beechey to be "in a state of neglect"; he commented that "so poorly did the place appear to be peopled that a sickly col umn of smoke rising from within some dilapidated walls?misnamed the presi dio for protection?was the only indication of the country being inhabited."36 32 Henry, Early Maritime Artists, 39. 33 See Voyage pittoresque autour du monde, avec des portraits de sauvages dAmerique, d'Asie, dAfrique, et des iles du Grand ocean; des paysages, des vues maritimes, et plusieurs objets d'histoire naturelle; accompagne de descriptions par m. le baron Cuvier, et m. A. de Chamisso, et d'observations sur les cranes humains, par m. le docteur Gall., 103 plates, 3 maps (Paris, 1822yf . 34 Frederick Beechey, one of eighteen, was born in 1796 to Sir William Beechey, a well known portrait painter and member of the Royal Academy. See Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering's [sic] Strait, to co-operate with the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty's ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28 (London, 1831yf 6 H H D O V R * O H Q Q ) D U U L V 0 D X U L F H + R G J V R Q D Q G $ Q G U H Z ' D Y L G H G V 7 K H & D O L I R U Q L a Journal of Lieutenant Edward Belcher aboard H.M.S. Blossom in 1826 and 1827," Bolet?n: The Journal of the California Mission Studies Association 21 (Spring 2004yf . 35 Reproduced in Perry, Pacific Arcadia, fig. 19, "The Presidio and Pueblo of Monterey, Upper California," 19. See also Henry, Early Maritime Artists, 125-6 for background information on William Smyth. 36 Quote from Paddison, A World Transformed, 174 This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 18 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly Richard Beechey's View Taken Near Monterey shows an equally tranquil scene. [See Figure 15, 16.] Two interesting paint ings of Mission San Luis Rey come from French explorers August duHaut Cilly (1826yf D Q G ( X J H Q e Duflot de Mofras (1841yf . The first is described in duHaut-Cilly's journal following a welcoming statement by Franciscan Father Antonio Peyri, who served his French visitors "chocolate and Figure 15. Richard Brydges Beechey, Presidio of Monterey, California, 1826-27. Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. ordered beds prepared" so they "might rest until the dinner hour." DuHaut-Cilly wrote that the vast buildings of San Luis Rey "were laid out on a wide and grand scale" and formed an immense square, five hundred feet on each side. The principal fa?ade is a long peristyle borne on thirty-two square pillars that support vaulted arches. Although the structure is of only one story, its elevation and fine proportions give it both grace and nobility.... On the right of the exterior is the church, with its bell tower ringed by two galleries, one above the other. The fa?ade is simple and without pilasters, but the interior is rich and well decorated. A spigot brings water to the sacristy.37 [See Figure 17.] Figure 16. Richard Brydges Beechey, View Taken Near Monterey, 1826. Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. At the same time, Ferdinand Deppe, an agent for a German hide trader in Mexico City painted a well-known and often-published view of Mission San Gabriel in 1832.38 A few years later, in 1840, the French min ister of foreign affairs in Mexico City sent Eugene Duflot de Mofras, an at tach? of the French em bassy, to visit provinces on the Northwest Coast 37 Auguste duHaut-Cilly, Voyage autour du monde, principalmente a la Californie et aux ?les Sandwich, pen dant les ann?es 1826, 1827, 1828, et 1829, trans, and ed. August Frug? and Neal Harlow (Berkeley, 1999yf . 38 Moure, California Art, 18. The painting is housed at the Santa Barbara Mission Archives. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 19 Figure 17. Auguste duHaut-Cilly, Mission San Luis Rey, 1826. From Voyage autour du monde, principalemente a la Californie et aux ?les Sandwich, pen dant les ann?es 1826, 1827, 1828, et 1829. Photo courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. and make a report. The artist accompany ing the expedition left a painting of Mission San Luis Rey showing a second tower and giv ing the mission church some added, albeit un necessary, symmetry. It is generally supposed that the painting was done from memory in 1841, after the French visitors left the area.39 Although a number of other artists could be considered, space does not permit a complete cataloguing of all those who left draw ings or paintings prior to 1848.40 Two, however, stand out. With increased American interest in California, the United States Navy launched a premature attack on Monterey in 1842, under the command of Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones. William Henry Meyers, a gunner on the American ship Cyane, depicted the October 1842 attack on the presidio, as well as painting a deserted Mission San Carlos in nearby Carmel. [See Figure 18.] In the left hand corner of the latter are mounted soldiers, presumably Americans, with their guns pointed at the dilapidated buildings. According to art ex pert Perry, "Meyers's juxtaposition of the ruined mission and the armed representa tives of the American military enacts an imaginary standoff Figure 18. William Henry Myers, Mission San Carlos (Carmelyf 3 K R W R F R X U W H V y of Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. 39 Duflot de Mofras, Exploration du Territoire de l'Oregon, des Californies et de la Mer Vermeille, Ex?cut?e pendant les Ann?es 1840, 1841, et 1842, 2 vols. (Paris, 1844yf . 40 Some British and American fur traders in the Pacific Northwest, as well as other visitors to the Pacific Coast, have left valuable sketches. See Henry, Early Maritime Artists, 63-130 and 173-224, for details on these and other artists. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 20 SPRING 2005 Western Historical Quarterly between the original colonists and those who considered themselves the rightful own ers of the land."41 California in 1842 still belonged to Mexico, and only a handful of Americans had settled in the area by that time. Meyers returned, however, during the U. S.-Mexican War in 1846, and completed a number of additional sketches.42 Finally, William Rich Hutton, paymaster of the New York Volunteer troops in Monterey at the end of the Mexican War in 1847 and 1848, arrived in California at the age of twenty-one and made various sketches of life up and down the state. Writers such as Richard Henry Dana, Alfred Robinson, Edwin Bryant, and John C. Fremont had already acquainted easterners with life in Mexican California, so Hutton's work was no doubt well received. He painted two watercolors in Monterey, one called Trying out Tallow showing Indian or Mexican laborers stirring cauldrons of beef fat over low fires to make or "try" tallow, and the other called Matanza or The Slaughter, with some cattle skulls lying on the ground and hides drying in the distance, perhaps as a subtle commentary on the "backward" methods used by the Californios who were accustomed to an unlimited supply of cattle.43 Hutton also painted a peaceful scene of San Francisco Bay in 1847, showing a duck swimming in the foreground, and sketched both the towns of San Francisco and of Los Angeles, with an attempt to show the form of the houses without embellishment. [See Figure 19.] He used pencil and watercolor to show Mission Santa Barbara (still in good shapeyf D U X U D O O R R N L Q J / R V $ Q J H O H V I U R P W K H 6 R X W K D 9 L H Z R I 0 R Q W H U H \ D Q G R I 6 X W W H U s Saw Mill, April 16, 1849. Peter Blodgett, author of Land of Golden Dreams: California in the Gold Rush Decade, 1848-1858, describes the content of Hutton's paintings in a straightforward manner without analyzing the artist's motives.44 These paintings provide an excellent visual record of California on the eve of American rule. It is sometimes difficult to understand what writers of the past have meant in certain passages, and it becomes even more difficult when translating documents writ ten in a foreign language. Even the translation of captions can tell a different story than the artist had intended. These difficulties, however, pale in comparison to the problems inherent in trying to guess an artist's meaning in sketching or painting a landscape, fortress, village scene, or native inhabitant, or why he might put himself in 41 Perry, Pacific Arcadia, 21. 42 See William H. Meyers, Naval Sketches of the War in California reproducing twenty-eight Drawings made in 1846-47 by William H. Meyers, text by Capt. Dudley Knox (New York, 1939yf . 43 These watercolors are housed at the Huntington Library, San Marino, California. 44 Peter J. Blodgett, Land of Golden Dreams: California in the Gold Rush Decade, 1848 1858 (San Marino, 1999yf 6 H H D O V R : L O O L D P 5 L F K + X W W R Q & D O L I R U Q L D ' U D Z L Q J s Reproduced from the Originals in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1956yf D Q G : L O O L D P 5 L F h Hutton, Glances at California, 1847-1853, Diaries and Letters of William Rich Hutton (San Marino, 1942yf . This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Iris H. W. Engstrand 21 Figure 19. William Rich Hutton, Los Angeles from the South, 1848. Photo courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino. the scene.45 Nevertheless, it is possible for the historian or expert in art to use certain knowledge to speculate about the past in order to clarify the purpose or intent of an artist in illustrating particular persons or places. There is still, however, an element of guesswork. Even with the advent of photography, pictures can be staged or retouched, and today, with computers, there is no guarantee as to accuracy. It is important to understand that pictures are just one piece of the puzzle, and should not be overlooked, but used with the utmost care when making historic judgments. So far no women artists have been discovered. This content downloaded from 204.17.179.87 on Thu, 28 Jul 2016 20:38:52 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms