New Hebrides (present-day Vanuatu)
1818
Hand-colored engraving, koa wood frame
Frame: 17½ × 20 in (44.5 × 50.8 cm); Image: 9 × 12 in (22.9 × 30.5 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Stockholm
This engraving depicts a coastal scene of the New Hebrides, the archipelago known today as Vanuatu, with a standing figure in the foreground and a canoe carrying several figures on the water, rendered with the topographical and ethnographic detail characteristic of early nineteenth-century European documentation of the Pacific. Published in Milan as part of L'Oceanica, an Italian geographical and illustrated work, it appeared at a moment when European interest in the Pacific was intensifying following the Cook voyages and the major French and British expedition accounts that followed. The New Hebrides were among the more extensively documented island groups in the Pacific literature of the period.
The hand coloring is well preserved, with the landscape, figures, and coastal setting rendered with care across a composition that balances documentary intent with the pictorial conventions of the period. The engraving is presented in a custom koa wood frame with linen mat, a presentation suited to the warmth of the hand-colored palette. The Stockholm provenance is consistent with the broad European distribution of illustrated geographical publications of this kind.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
New Hebrides (present-day Vanuatu)
1818
Hand-colored engraving, koa wood frame
Frame: 17½ × 20 in (44.5 × 50.8 cm); Image: 9 × 12 in (22.9 × 30.5 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Stockholm
This engraving depicts a coastal scene of the New Hebrides, the archipelago known today as Vanuatu, with a standing figure in the foreground and a canoe carrying several figures on the water, rendered with the topographical and ethnographic detail characteristic of early nineteenth-century European documentation of the Pacific. Published in Milan as part of L'Oceanica, an Italian geographical and illustrated work, it appeared at a moment when European interest in the Pacific was intensifying following the Cook voyages and the major French and British expedition accounts that followed. The New Hebrides were among the more extensively documented island groups in the Pacific literature of the period.
The hand coloring is well preserved, with the landscape, figures, and coastal setting rendered with care across a composition that balances documentary intent with the pictorial conventions of the period. The engraving is presented in a custom koa wood frame with linen mat, a presentation suited to the warmth of the hand-colored palette. The Stockholm provenance is consistent with the broad European distribution of illustrated geographical publications of this kind.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
