Frere Michel, Lay Brother of Missions RC, Atuona, P. 38

Category

Museums & Galleries Item

Item no

19355

Title

p. 38, Frere Michel, lay brother of Missions RC, Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Island

Description

Frere Michel (real name Eutrope Blanc), 1832-1899, stands in front of a whitewashed Catholic church at Hatiheu, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands, with fretwork windows. He is dressed in black with a clergyman's white collar and wide-brimmed white hat, and is standing with his right arm on his him.

The image is from the photograph album entitled 'The Cruise of the Casco' of Robert Louis Stevenson's travels around Hawaii and French Polynesia in 1888.

Artist / maker

Osbourne, Lloyd

Date

1889

Size

10.9 x 13.5 cm

Type

Photograph

Location

Writers' Museum

Brother Michel's church was at Hatiheu, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas islands. Brother Michel was Eutrope Blanc (1832-1899), a carpenter by trade, who came to the Marquesas in 1863, constructed various buildings for the Catholic mission, and died at Atuona, Hiva Oa.

The Marquesas Islands are situated in French Polynesia, in the southern Pacific Ocean. They are volcanic and are named after the Marquis of Cañete, who financially supported the Spanish Explorer Álvaro de Mendaña de Neira who disovered the islands in 1595. Atuona was once the capital of the Marquesas Islands and is situated on Hiva Oa Island.

Born in Edinburgh on 13th November 1850, Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, playwright and travel writer. Although he was plagued by ill health all his life, he was extraordinarily well-travelled, visiting Europe, America and the South Seas. He married American born Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne in 1880 and is best-known for works like Treasure Island (1883), Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (both 1886).

Robert Louis Stevenson spent the latter years of his life both travelling and resident in the Pacific. The family chartered the 'Casco' in San Francisco and spent several weeks travelling in French Polynesia, including an extended stay in Tahiti where Stevenson recovered from a bout of illness. After this the Stevenson group continued to Honolulu, Hawaii, where they landed in January 1889. In the summer of 1889 Stevenson embarked on a six month voyage through the Gilbert Islands to Samoa aboard the 'Equator'. It was here that Stevenson bought an estate he named Vailima. After another voyage, aboard the trading steamer the 'Janet Nicoll', Stevenson returned to Vailima. He died here on the 3rd December 1894 of a brain haemorrhage at the age of 44, leaving what many consider his best work, Weir of Hermiston (1896) unfinished.

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People > Religion > Missionaries

Places > Oceania > Marquesas Islands

Religion > Religious facilities > Catholic churches

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Frere Michel, lay brother of Missions RC, Atuona, p. 38