Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond
Publisher: South Pacific Dreams Publishing
Release Date: August 11, 2026
ISBN-13: 979-8-9948266-0-7
344 pages and 509 images
In this richly illustrated biography, C. J. Cook reveals the remarkable life of Robert Lee Eskridge—painter, writer, and adventurer whose career spanned five decades and three oceans. Trained in Paris under Cubist master André Lhote, Eskridge carried the bold geometry of modernism into the South Pacific, blending Art Deco structure with the living rhythms of Polynesia.
Four journeys to Tahiti inspired his classic book Manga Reva: The Forgotten Islands (1931), where Art, travel, and firsthand cultural observation come together in vivid prose and illustration. In Hawaiʻi, Eskridge became a visual historian of island life before statehood, painting surfers, fishermen, paniolos, and hula dancers with clarity and respect.
From Tahiti to Hawaiʻi, Brazil, and beyond, Eskridge transformed travel into Art and curiosity into story. This engaging biography restores his place in Pacific art history and invites readers to rediscover an artist who captured the spirit of the islands with insight, adventure, and humanity.
344 pages and 509 images
Long before global tourism reshaped the world’s most remote destinations, artist Robert Lee Eskridge was there — preserving island life as it existed nearly a century ago: the fishermen at daybreak, the surfers poised against rolling seas, the vahine framed by mountain and lagoon.
“His art does more than depict memory; it safeguards it,” writes award-winning author and historian CJ Cook in his book, Robert Lee Eskridge: Affable Artist, Author, and Adventurer in Tahiti, Hawaii, Brazil, and Beyond. “In bringing his life to the page, I have come to understand that his paintings and prose were never separate endeavors. They were twin instruments in a single mission: to make the world more vivid, more human, and more remembered.”
A painter, writer and restless traveler whose career spanned five decades and three oceans, Eskridge produced thousands of watercolors, hundreds of oils and more than 100 illustrations for eight books, three of which he wrote.
Eskridge trained in France under the Cubist master André Lhote, absorbing the structural discipline of modernism and carrying it with him into the tropics. There, he merged Art Deco geometry with the organic rhythms of island life, creating a visual language that was both contemporary and deeply rooted in place. His four journeys to Tahiti culminated in Manga Reva: The Forgotten Islands (1931), a landmark work of Pacific art and literature that blends firsthand ethnographic insight with lyrical prose and evocative illustration.
In Hawai‘i, Eskridge emerged as a keen visual historian of daily life before statehood. His murals, watercolors and oils — depicting surfers, fishermen, paniolos and hula dancers — capture a world in transition with empathy, clarity and respect. Ever curious and unwilling to stand still, he later expanded his palette while traveling through Brazil and Portugal, responding to new cultures with the same attentiveness that defined his island work. At every stage, Eskridge fused scholarship, adventure and humor into his art and writing. His paintings and books reveal a man of intellect and humanity — an artist who bridged continents, honored local cultures and celebrated the enduring beauty of the Pacific and beyond.
“Eskridge urged us to observe with intention and feel sincerely,” Cook writes. “Each painted stroke invited contemplation. Each story bridged worlds.”
AUTHOR
|CJ Cook is an award-winning author and historian whose work focuses on the art, artists and cultural history of the South Pacific. His previous titles, including Tyree: Artist of the South Pacific and Leeteg: Babes, Bars, Beaches, and Black Velvet Art, have earned multiple golds from the Independent Book Publishers Association.
Cook’s biography of Robert Lee Eskridge offers the most comprehensive account yet of the artist's remarkable life and legacy. The expansive, richly illustrated volume features 509 images, including over 210 works by Eskridge.
Cook serves on the board of The Manuscript Society, an organization dedicated to preserving historical documents.
PRAISE
"Robert Lee Eskridge painted Hawai'i at a pivotal moment, when its landscapes and daily rhythms remained intact yet stood on the brink of change. His contemporaries valued his work, and today, a new generation of collectors seeks it out for the way it bridges Hawai'i's past and present."
"For collectors, artists, and those who steward Art across generations, this biography offers more than history. It offers understanding."
"Eskridge is a highly regarded artist in Art Deco in Hawai'i and Polynesia. With robust color design and angularity to design forms, his work is outstanding in the art world and collectors' circles."
"Eskridge's work is beautiful, unmistakably influenced by Art Deco, and crafted with an honesty that honors Hawai'i, its people, and the spirit of the islands."
