Art and exploration in California, 1791-1827

Magazine Antiques, April, 1999 by Claire Perry

Choris also made studies of the Indians engaged in the typical activities of their culture, including dancing, playing games, and hunting. A lithograph made from the artist's field sketches of Chulumni Indians at the hunt (Pl. XI) conveys the admiration for the tribe he expressed in his journal of the trip:

The [Chulumni] have a very pleasing appearance. They fashion beautiful arms such as bows and arrows. The points of the latter are made of shells carved with great skill.(5)

The huntsmen in the print present themselves in a frontal and a side view. One of them prepares to launch an arrow, presumably to bring down one of the spiraling flock of birds visible at the top of the picture. The movement shows the Indian's taut musculature to its best advantage and makes a pleasing counterpoint to the relaxed posture of his companion. The physical robustness of the pair, coupled with the profusion of birds in the sky, the extravagant greenery growing in the foreground, and the suggestion of ample harbors along the coastline in the distance, illustrates California as a place of natural abundance that the czar would do well to investigate further.

In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from the crumbling Spanish empire, claiming California as pan of its northern territory. Freed from the Spanish restrictions on landing rights and trade in California, merchant ships from England, France, and Russia, as well as the United States, pursued a lively trade in the region. In this competitive environment there loomed the question of which of the leading maritime powers would ultimately seize control of California. In the eyes of the contending countries, Mexico - an upstart nation distracted by widespread political instability - did not qualify for permanent ownership of such a useful territorial asset.

During this period of heightened interest in California, England sent HMS Blossom, a sloop of war under the command of Captain Frederick William Beechey (1796-1856), to the Pacific with the stated purpose of exploring the Bering Strait. Needing to winter in ice-free waters, it was inevitable that the ship would pay a visit to the former Spanish colony. In 1826 she anchored in San Francisco Bay and the following year off Monterey, giving Captain William Smyth, a ship's officer, many weeks to familiarize himself with California's people and environment. Curiously, the eight known sketches made by Smyth during his stay show little interest in the sort of visual inventory made by Choris and Cardero. For the most part, the artist seems to have eschewed natural history and any appraisal of the animal husbandry practices of the settlers in favor of more general views and picturesque vignettes. Indigenous plants and animals, the stock-in-trade of expeditionary artists of this period, are almost entirely absent from Smyth's work. Rejecting the menial observations of the mere collector of data, Smyth asserts his status as a confrere of Turner and Constable with his frankly aestheticized interpretations of California subjects.