Wahlbom, Johann Wilhelm Carl 1810-1858 :[Violent encounter in a Polynesian society] / C. Wahlbom inv & sculps. [Stockholm?] 1835

A naked man seated on the right, with a leg tattoo, is watching a group of three men and a woman engaged in a struggle. It appears that the woman was about to be killed but has succeeded in plunging a dagger into the breast of her would-be assassin. The second man, wearing a Maori-style comb in his hair is about to hit the woman on the head with a rock. The third man is forcibly holding the woman's arm and gesturing in horror. There is a background of very large tropical tree-trunks and vegetation on the right.

The artist Carl Wahlbom was a Swedish illustrator. During 1835 to 1837 he was principally engaged on engraving illustrations for G. H. Mellins and N. H. Thomson's "Museum for naturvetenskap, konst och historia" [Museum for Natural Science, Art and History] and it is possible that this illustration is from that source. The etching may be a re-engraving from another unknown source or it may be an invention of the artist's. The leg tattoo of one man in this illustration suggests that the scene is intended to be Polynesian (but not Māori), while the man wielding the stone has a Māori comb holding his hair back. The scene is therefore inaccurate in its details and is unlikely to have come from an eye-witness account.

Quantity: 2 b&w art print(s) etchings.

Physical Description: Etching 178 x 214 mm (image), 197 x 231 mm (plate-mark) on sheet 229 x 276 mm

Provenance: Purchased by the vendor in Stockholm in 1980 from a print dealer. Said to be illustrations from a missionary journal.