Along with the writer Henry Adams, LaFarge embarked upon a year-long tour of the South Pacific in August 1890. After a stop in Hawaii, the two continued on to Samoa, arriving in the village of Vaiala in early October, where they stayed until departing for Tahiti in late January of 1891. Samoa had seen few western travelers at the time of their journey, and LaFarge and Adams were treated like visiting royalty. They painted, wrote, and received visitors in a large thatch-roofed guest hut from which LaFarge captured the view of the cookhouse depicted in the present work. Its owner, Mataafa, was at the time Samoaʼs deposed king, caught up in the ongoing transition between ruling western governments.


Here, LaFarge conveys the feel of Samoaʼs lush vegetation in a composition of verdant greens, while also indicating the islandʼs prevailing architectural style. At the time of LaFargeʼs visit, Samoaʼs building stock consisted almost wholly of open-sided buildings like the one in the present work, with thatched roofs held up by wooden supports. The sides of the building could be closed off by raising or lowering the adjustable “walls,” grass mats that hung from the roofline to shut out sun or rain. LaFarge described these huts – like the one he stayed in while on the island – as “not exactly the finest, but very well built,” suggesting his enchantment with Samoaʼs welcoming inhabitants and strikingly beautiful environment.