| Vue d'une rue d'Honoloulou, Capitale des Iles Sandwich. La Reine Kinau revient du Temple des Estrangers Accompagnee de sed dames d’honneur.
Lithograph, Paris 1841
Mat Height 16" Width 19" mat height 10" width 13"
Provenance: John Dominis Holt, Honolulu, HI
A rare and important early view of Honolulu, presenting a lively street scene in the Hawaiian capital during the visit of the French frigate La Vénus in July 1837.
The image shows Queen Kinau (Kaʻahumanu II, regent of the Hawaiian Kingdom, here called “Reine Kinau”), returning from the missionary church accompanied by her ladies of honor. She is shown in the center of the procession, richly attired and surrounded by attendants, while Western visitors, including a French naval officer and a European woman, walk nearby.
The voyage of the Vénus (1836–1839), commanded by Abel Aubert Dupetit-Thouars, carried the ship from Callao to the Pacific, with Honolulu serving as a key stop. The vessel anchored off the city on 8 July 1837 and remained for two weeks. Dupetit-Thouars had originally set course to verify the reported island of St. Paul, concluding it did not exist. Once in Honolulu, he, like many French visitors, became entangled in the ongoing disputes between Catholic missionaries, Protestant missions, and the Hawaiian monarchy.
This lithograph, printed in the Atlas pittoresque accompanying Dupetit-Thouars’s Voyage autour du monde sur la frégate la Vénus, stands among the earliest detailed pictorial representations of Honolulu, blending ethnographic curiosity with European naval and religious interests.
| Vue d'une rue d'Honoloulou, Capitale des Iles Sandwich. La Reine Kinau revient du Temple des Estrangers Accompagnee de sed dames d’honneur.
Lithograph, Paris 1841
Mat Height 16" Width 19" mat height 10" width 13"
Provenance: John Dominis Holt, Honolulu, HI
A rare and important early view of Honolulu, presenting a lively street scene in the Hawaiian capital during the visit of the French frigate La Vénus in July 1837.
The image shows Queen Kinau (Kaʻahumanu II, regent of the Hawaiian Kingdom, here called “Reine Kinau”), returning from the missionary church accompanied by her ladies of honor. She is shown in the center of the procession, richly attired and surrounded by attendants, while Western visitors, including a French naval officer and a European woman, walk nearby.
The voyage of the Vénus (1836–1839), commanded by Abel Aubert Dupetit-Thouars, carried the ship from Callao to the Pacific, with Honolulu serving as a key stop. The vessel anchored off the city on 8 July 1837 and remained for two weeks. Dupetit-Thouars had originally set course to verify the reported island of St. Paul, concluding it did not exist. Once in Honolulu, he, like many French visitors, became entangled in the ongoing disputes between Catholic missionaries, Protestant missions, and the Hawaiian monarchy.
This lithograph, printed in the Atlas pittoresque accompanying Dupetit-Thouars’s Voyage autour du monde sur la frégate la Vénus, stands among the earliest detailed pictorial representations of Honolulu, blending ethnographic curiosity with European naval and religious interests.
