Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
Biographical / Historical
Conditions Governing Access
Digitized Material
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Processing Information
Contributing Institution:
Special Collections
Title: Images from Tahiti
Creator:
Spitz, Marie-Charles Georges Henri, 1857-1894
Identifier/Call Number: 93.R.90
Physical Description:
1.5 Linear Feet
1 box (19 photographic prints)
Date (inclusive): 1870-1895
Physical Location: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the
catalog record for this collection.
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access policy .
Abstract: The collection of 19
photographs
taken by Charles Georges Spitz and Sophia Hoare depicts people and
events as well as everyday life in Tahiti during the last three decades of the 19th century. Included are portraits of the
Tahitian royal family;
photographs
depicting the funeral of Pōmare V; and a group portrait of M. Chessé and the chiefs of Tahiti and Mo'orea, taken at the time
of France's
annexation of Tahiti in 1880.
Language of Material: Collection material is in French and
English.
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Images from Tahiti, 1870-1895, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 93.R.90.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa93r90
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection of 19 albumen
photographs
taken by Charles Georges Spitz and Sophia Hoare depicts people and events as well as everyday life in Tahiti
during the last three decades of the 19th century. Portraits of the Tahitian royal family include a photomontage of family
members by Hoare, and
portraits of Tamatao and Terutapunui, the brothers of Pōmare V, King of Tahiti. Four
photographs
depict the funeral of Pōmare V in June 1891: two show
the king lying in state, and two show the exterior of the royal palace draped in mourning, one with the funeral carriage leaving
the palace. These
photographs
are accompanied by a photocopy of a note written by Pōmare to Papeete's police commissioner in 1891 (original note in Tahitian
and a French
translation), requesting help in finding a lost dog.
Other portraits include one of Admiral Marc de St. Hilaire, commander of the
Duquesne and a group portrait of M. Chessé
and the chiefs of Tahiti and Mooréa, taken by Hoare at the time of France's annexation of Tahiti in 1880.
Images of Tahiti and Tahitians include a schooner wrecked on the reefs of Papeete; views of the town of Papeete; the lighthouse
at Venus Point; groups
of Tahitians posed in front of their homes; and a studio portrait of four young Tahitian men and women.
Eleven
photographs
are annotated in French, in two distinct hands; four of these have Spitz's wet stamp in red ink on the verso: Photographie
instantanée G. Spitz, Papeete, Tahiti. Eight prints are from a disbound album from the repository's Joseph Armstrong Baird
collection of nineteenth
century architectural
photographs
(accession no. 88.R.8) and are annotated in English in Baird's hand. All of the prints are mounted.
Arrangement
Arranged in a single series: Series I: Images from Tahiti, 1870-1895.
Biographical / Historical
Sophia Hoare, née Johnson, (also known as Mrs. S. Hoare, Madame S. Hoare, Suzanne Hoare, or Susan Hoare) immigrated from Manchester,
England to
Auckland, New Zealand with her husband, Charles Burton Hoare and their three daughters in 1863. There Charles established
a photography studio called
Hoare & Wooster; the partner named Wooster has yet to be identified with certainty. By 1868 the Hoare family had moved on
to Papeete, Tahiti, where
Charles again opened a studio. There is no record of him in Tahiti after 1876, and he may have traveled to San Francisco,
dying there or elsewhere in
the United States around 1879. Sophia took over the business and ran Atelier Hoare for over 30 years.
In 1889 Sophia exhibited her
photographs
at the Exposition Universelle de Paris where she was awarded a bronze medal. Prior to the exhibition Sophia
signed her
photographs
"Mrs. S. Hoare," changing her imprint to "Madame S. Hoare" after 1889. In addition to increasing her exposure in general,
the
exposition was important to Hoare in that Paul Gaugauin would likely have encountered her
photographs
there. Gauguin would certainly have become
personally acquainted with Sophia once he arrived in Papeete in 1891. That he knew her work is evidenced by the inclusion
of one of her
photographs
of
King Pōmare V in his original draft of
Noa Noa. Sophia remained in Papette until 1904 when she and her daughter Elizabeth
joined her other daughters Louisa and Octavia in San Francisco. Sophia died sometime between 1910 and 1920. The final disposition
of Atelier Hoare is
unknown.
The French photographer, Marie-Charles Georges Henri Spitz, known as Charles Spitz or Georges Spitz, was born in Marmoutier,
Bas-Rhin, on September 22,
1857, and died in Brest, Finistere, on January 9, 1894. He arrived in Tahiti in 1879 as a member of the French naval infantry
and was released from duty
in 1880. He remained in Tahiti and opened a studio in Papeete. His connection to the Hoare studio, if any, is unclear. After
Spitz's death Frank Homes
married his widow and took over his studio, eventually passing it to Spitz's son George (known as Loulou) who stamped his
photographs
"Spitz Curio
Store."
Like Sophia Hoare, Spitz exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle de Paris and also won awards. Again, it is likely that
Gauguin first became
acquainted with Spitz's photography through the exposition and likely encountered the photographer in Tahiti. While several
of Spitz's
photographs
have
been attributed as sources for Gauguin's work, the connection between Spitz's image of a figure drinking from a forest waterfall
and Gauguin's various
versions of
Pape Moe (1883-1894) is perhaps the closest.
Sources consulted:
Giles, Keith. "Charles Burton Hoare (1833-c1879), a Mancunian in Paradise,"
http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd%5Cphotographers%5Cessays%5CHoare.pdf
Geaneant entry for Marie-Charles Georges Henri Spitz,
https://gw.geneanet.org/efrogier?lang=en&n=spitz&oc=0&p=marie+charles+georges+henri
Grob Gallery. "Gaugin, Tahiti and Photography." https://grobgallery.com/exhibitions/17/overview/
Conditions Governing Access
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Digitized Material
The collection was digitized by the repository in 2019 and the images are available online:
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/93r90
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquired in 1988 and 1992.
Processing Information
The finding aid was written by Beth Ann Guynn in 2019.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Funeral rites and ceremonies -- French Polynesia -- Tahiti (Island)
Tahiti (French Polynesia : Island) -- Description and travel.
France -- Colonies -- Oceania
Tahitians -- Portraits
Photographs
, Original.
Albumen prints -- Society Islands -- Tahiti -- 19th century
Postmortem
photographs
-- Society Islands -- Tahiti -- 19th century
Papeete (Tahiti)
Hoare, Sophia
Pomare, V (King of Tahiti), 1839-1891