One of the writers and artists I write about in my new book Guys like Gauguin is Robert lee Eskridge an American artist who found fame in Hawaii. My initial interest in him came through the fact that he stayed with my grandfather for a few weeks in Tahiti, and painted a wonderful portrait of Princess Ina Salmon, then pregnant with my father’s half-brother.

CJ Cook, Robert Lee Eskridge

Earlier this month (August 2026) CJ Cook published a wonderful biography of Eskridge: Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond. The joy of this magnificent book are the amazing illustrations. Cook has managed to gather together an almost definitive collection of Eskridge’s work, many beautifully reproduced in colour with helpful explanations about each. Eskridge’s then modern painting style, heavily influenced by Art Deco, works brilliantly to portray the people and landscapes of the many islands and countries he visited.

Eskridge’s paintings, although very stylised, appear to offer a realistic record of the people and places he visited. Too many of the artists who painted in Tahiti, particularly those who travelled there during the nineteenth and early twentieth century, painted their impressions of the island, attempting to imagine how life must have been before Captain Cook and others first visited the island.

Michael Horikawa, in his forward to Cook’s book, explains that by the time Eskridge arrived in Hawaii in the 1930s western influence had created an impression of Hawaii as a fantasy destination and the scantily clad hula girl had become the symbol of the islands. Eskridge chose his subjects with care portraying Hawaiian life with cultural sensitivity.    

Not only is Cook’s book a wonderful record of Eskridge’s work but he has also written a very entertaining, interesting and meticulously well researched biography.

CJ Cook, Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond, (South Pacific Dreams) Aug 2026.