Louis Choris

Louis Choris (Loggin Andreyevich Khoris) was a German-Russian painter and explorer, born in 1795 in Yekaterinoslav (present-day Dnipro, Ukraine). In 1816 he joined the Russian ship Rurik as expedition artist under Otto von Kotzebue, sailing through the Pacific and along the North American coast, recording landscapes, peoples and customs from Hawaii to Alaska and California, including the Ohlone people at the San Francisco missions. His images are prized for their directness and freshness — painting things as he actually saw them rather than through convention.