In Encounters with Paradise, the most comprehensive catalog of historic Hawaiian paintings, David Forbes notes that "Charles Furneaux, Jules Tavernier and Joseph Strong are thought of as the "Old Masters of Hawaiian Painting".  Joseph Strong and his wife Isobel arived in Hawaii from San Francisco in 1882.  Strong was already well known in San Francisco art circles.  The Strongs, Jos. and Isobel established a studio in Nuuanu and provided a steady flow of black and white illustrations for American and European pictorial magazines, however, because of the way these illustrations were used, few survived.  One of Strong's favorite subjects was of figures on a beach with a canoe, and the current example incorporates all of his favorite elements, including a suggestion that there are royalty occupying the structures higher up on the beach.  

Jos. Strong's large studio painting such as this are quite rare (Don Severson indicated there were fewer than 30 extant).   I can only account for about 6 or 7.