All of the above information is taken directly from the Catalogue of Original Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors in the Robert B. Honeyman, Jr., Collection, compiled by Joseph Armstrong Baird, Jr. (Berkeley, 1968).
Langsdorff Group. 36 items, ca. 1803–10. Depict the round-the-world journey of Nikolai Petrovich Rezanov, high chamberlain to Alexander I, 1803–1807, one ot the first great Russian marine expeditions. The twofold purpose of the trip: to establish Russian trade with Japan (unsuccessful) and to investigate and develop the fur-trading colonies of the Russian-American Company. Rezanov found the settlements in poor shape, bought an American ship (the Juno) and its goods in New Archangel, and went to California to trade the cargo for food to bring back to the colonies. Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff (1774–1852) was physician and naturalist on the expedition. This German remained in Russian service for some years, attained the rank of councilor, eventually served as consul-general to the Brazils for Russia.
Some of the artists represented in this group include, besides Langsdorff, Ivan Petrovich Korukin (a shipbuilding expert who accompanied the expedition), Alexander Orloffsky, and Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau (a naturalist with the expedition).
Subjects of the art works: St. Peter and St. Paul in Kamchatka (design of Major Herrmann von Frederici); scenes of the island of Nukahiwa in the Marquesas, of the Sandwich Islands, Sakhalin, Kodiak, the Aleutian Islands, Kurile Islands, Japan, Sitka (dancers), Alaska, Oonalashka, California (San Jose and San Francisco), and Tenerife (Canary Islands). Langsdorff's "View of the Spanish Establishments of San Francisco in New California [as seen from the ship Juno]" is the first known view of that city.
There is important supplementary (background) material on the Langsdorff Group in the inventory prepared by Mr. Warren R. Howell. Finding aid available: https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf9p3012wq/
