Robert Dampier

Robert Dampier (1799–1874) was a British artist and clergyman.

Dampier was born in 1799 at the village of Codford St Peter in Wiltshire, England He was baptised on 20 December 1799. He was one of 13 children of Codford St Peter's rector Reverend John Dampier (1763–1839) and his wife Jane. In 1819, he went to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as a clerk. In 1825, he was picked up in Rio to be the expedition artist on the English ship HMS Blonde, under the command of Captain George Anson Byron. The ship was returning the bodies of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu to the Hawaiian Islands (known by the British as "Sandwich Islands"), after both died from measles during a visit to England. Robert Dampier spent 11 weeks in Hawaii painting portraits in oil paint and making pencil drawings of landscapes.

After returning to England, he studied law at Cambridge University and then was ordained in the Church of England. He married Sophia Francis Roberts in 1828. In 1837, he became rector of Langton Matravers church. Around 1843, they had a daughter Juliana Sophia, His wife died in 1864, and he married again in 1872. He had a daughter Frederika from the second marriage. Although employed a rector, he continued to sketch until his death in 1874.

Major works by Robert Dampier are held by the Honolulu Museum of Art and Washington Place, also in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Robert Dampier's oil on canvas painting 'Karaikapa, a Native of the Sandwich Islands, 1825

Robert Dampier's oil on canvas painting Tetuppa, a Native Female of the Sandwich Islands, 1825

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