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Apareaitu, Moorea


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Abstract

A coastal land/seascape, with colouring instructions; buildings, human figures and vegetation are shown, but not in great detail.

Description

Drawing. The annotation in the top left reads: "Beach purplish grey -- -- swelling[?] clouds. dark water -- mountains well marked and streaked with purple in the hollows. Cottages in the center[?] -- white.". The sky is filled with cumulo-nimbus clouds across the whole picture. The horizon is occupied by one principal rocky mountain rising in the midground from the left to the left centre, partly into the clouds, from which it re-emerges and descends, receding into a jagged and more distant hilly horizon from the centre to the right of the picture. The structure of these hills is only faintly sketched; an annotation towards the peak in the centre left reads: "dark blue". The lower slopes of the mountain descend directly to the foreshore and water level in the centre left of the midground. The view of the mountain is framed on the left and on the right by midground hills. The one on the left rises from the centre left to the left-hand edge of the midground, and continues briefly onto 39v, where it provides the horizon line. It is shown with no indication of vegetation. The hill on the right is scattered with palms and seems to have a grassy covering; it rises steeply from the centre right to a more level area leading to a gently rising ridge to the right-hand edge of the picture. The hills and the mountain form a backdrop to a wooded shoreline. On the left, there is a cluster of bushes and substantial palm trees; a small group of leafy trees is outlined at the left-hand edge of the picture. Amongst these trees, a single-storey building nestles near the water's edge, its roof obscured by the vegetation. It stands diagonal to the viewer, with four windows on one of its visible aspects, and three on the other; there may be some low fencing to its right. To the right, a short stretch of more distant small trees or shrubs in shadow leads in the centre to a line of three leafy trees, somewhat resembling the breadfruits illustrated in MS.Add.7984: 48, interspersed with small palms. To their right stands a single-storey pitched-roof building, with a door and a window opening, and fronted by low wooden fencing. In the midground to the right of this building, a small leafy tree and some small palms stand behind three low single-storey pitched roof buildings, whose roofs appear to extend to the ground. These structures lead to a line of about ten substantial palm trees interspersed with bushes, which stretch away from the waterfront in the centre right behind fencing. To the right of the fencing lies a beached canoe, whose stern is out of sight behind a single-storey pitched roof building with indications of thatch and upright timber wallboarding. A palm tree and a lower tree or large shrub are growing to the right of this building, at the right-hand edge of the picture. In front of this line of buildings and vegetation, a strip of beach sweeps from the left to the centre right, turning sharply towards viewer on the right, with some indication of lines of detritus marking the high tide. A human figure approaches the viewer on the beach just closer than the apex of the tide line. In the foreground, the beach sweeps back to the left-hand corner. The near shoreline is rough between the centre right and the centre left, with indications of possibly dead twiggy vegetation. Two human figures are shown near the shoreline in the centre right, one standing facing away from the viewer, the other seated and facing right. The water is smooth, with dark areas indicating reflections of the midground and background features. The direction of shadows cast by the standing figures on the beach suggests that the sun is shining from the left and slightly towards the viewer (consistent with the rather dark colouring instruction for the mountainside).

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