France
18th century
Copper plate engraving
16 × 20 in. including mat (40.6 × 50.8 cm); image: 7½ × 9½ in. (19.1 × 24.1 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Stockholm
This 18th-century French engraving depicts Otoo, a Tahitian chief, reflecting the European fascination with Polynesia during the age of Pacific exploration. Portraits of Tahitian leaders circulated widely through printed voyage accounts and helped shape European visual ideas of Tahiti. The image belongs to the broader tradition of engraved ethnographic and historical portraiture produced for collectors and readers of travel literature.
The work is executed as a copper plate engraving, with close linear cutting used to define the face, hair, clothing, and tonal background. The composition presents Otoo in bust-length format, emphasizing his status through direct portraiture rather than narrative setting. As a historical print, it offers both a period European image of Tahitian leadership and a record of 18th-century print culture connected to Pacific encounters.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
France
18th century
Copper plate engraving
16 × 20 in. including mat (40.6 × 50.8 cm); image: 7½ × 9½ in. (19.1 × 24.1 cm)
Provenance: Private collection, Stockholm
This 18th-century French engraving depicts Otoo, a Tahitian chief, reflecting the European fascination with Polynesia during the age of Pacific exploration. Portraits of Tahitian leaders circulated widely through printed voyage accounts and helped shape European visual ideas of Tahiti. The image belongs to the broader tradition of engraved ethnographic and historical portraiture produced for collectors and readers of travel literature.
The work is executed as a copper plate engraving, with close linear cutting used to define the face, hair, clothing, and tonal background. The composition presents Otoo in bust-length format, emphasizing his status through direct portraiture rather than narrative setting. As a historical print, it offers both a period European image of Tahitian leadership and a record of 18th-century print culture connected to Pacific encounters.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
