Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Sunrise over Diamond Head
Jules Tavernier American, born France
Not on view
The prominent Waikīkī landmark Lē‘ahi, also known as Diamond Head, appears here in a shadowy haze beneath large purple clouds. The ocean’s silvery glow, the stillness of the scene, and the cloud-filtered sunrise hint that a storm has recently lifted. It is said that all dormant and extinct craters, such as Lē‘ahi, are the former homes of the powerful female deity Pele, before she established a continual presence at Halema‘uma‘u, at the summit of Kīlauea, where volcanic eruptions are ongoing. Pele embodies the geological elements and related phenomena of volcanic activity. She is not a goddess who directs the lava; she is the lava. As the many manifestations of volcanism, Pele is respected for her ability to generate and expand the earth through her eruptions and flows.
—Healoha Johnston (Native Hawaiian)
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