American Artist In The South Sea

Book excerpt: The American artists John La Farge preceded Gauguin to the Pacific, and in their time his reputation as the modern Pacific painter far overshadowed that of the Frenchman. This remarkable work is the record of a year-long artistic odyssey through the South Seas, during which La Farge braved the volcanoes of Hawaii, visited Robert Louis Stevenson in Samoa, was adopted by a noble Tahitian family and journeyed through the wild hills of Fiji, painting and sketching lyrical studies of island life. Lavishly illustrated with his work, this account of the Polynesian adventures that La Farge shared with his friend the historian Henry Adams is an important contribution to the literary and artistic heritage of the Pacific and a revealing insight into the life of a complex and fascinating man.