This historic work holds a spoken provenance that has been requested to remain private, but important enough that it should be known to anyone who owns the painting.
The painting came to Vallejo Gallery directly from the descendants of a private family out of Tampa, Florida. It was acquired early in the 20th century by a family matriarch directly from a man identified as the last royal undertaker to the Hawaiian Royal Family. The undertaker knew members of the family in Hawaii, and he had moved in as a border to the family’s Florida home, and had brought the painting with him from Hawaii. The matriarch had provided care for the undertaker in his advancing years, and he gifted it to her on his passing. He had stated that the painting once hung in the Hawaiian Royal Palace from the time it was originally painted, and had passed to his family’s ownership with the dissolution of the Hawaiian Royal Palace in 1893.
The family has historic ties to Hawaii that continue to this day, and are prominent landowners. They were instrumental in the early governance of the territory, as politicians and lawmen, both before and after the revolution that replaced the Hawaiian monarchy.
