A Frenchman, August Borget is best known for his drawings and prints of exotic places, in particular China. He was born in 1809 in Issoudun, France south of Paris. Borget began a banking career, but soon went to Paris to become an artist, and periodically exhibited at the Salon from 1836 to 1859.

Beginning in 1836, he traveled through North and South America before stopping briefly in Honolulu in May, 1838, on board the ship "Psyche", on a world tour that took him to China. Age twenty-nine at the time he visited 'The Sandwich Islands', Borget evidenced professional arts training in his confident sketches; such as one he did in 1838 of the Honolulu waterfront with beached outrigger canoes and gabled buildings.

Auguste Borget resided in China from 1838 through 1839, traveling and sketching. The results of his work were published in Paris in 1842 as an album of lithographs entitled "La Chine et les Chinois". He also spent a lengthy stay at Macao, where he met and was sketched by George Chinnery, a British expatriate portraitist.

Auguste Borget's works are held in museums, including the Peabody Museum of Salem and in private collections.

Sources include:
Don Severson, author of "Finding Paradise", in association with the Honolulu Academy of Art
David W. Forbes, author of Encounters With Paradise.