29/08/2011 to 1/09/2011
29/08/2011 (half day). I started work on the first day of arrival (1.30pm, after train from Paris to Le Havre and lunch provided by the Museum) but there had been a problem with security at the Le Havre Natural History Museum, due to the potential theft of a Rhino horn from a temporary African display. As a consequence or simply as a coincidence the key for the room holding the Lesueur paintings could not be found (taken off site for security?).
The archive store for the Museum is in a different part of Le Havre and holds the Lesueur drawings file/archive, which can only be accessed in the presence of the curator for security reasons. On examination this archive was comprehensive, however there was construction work being carried out at the store, an ex-military fort/prison, and the power/lights were off for most of the visit. It can get pretty dark in an ex-prison. We persevered using the available natural light and I went through the catalogue, selecting the drawings *known to have come from Australia. None from Queensland but six or seven from northern Western Australia. At least they were tropical species of marine life (mainly fish), from the Baudin voyage.
At this point it became apparent that two drawings from a known landing in WA were missing, unknown reasons. I photographed those that were available. Then as systematically as possible I went through all the drawings that had been separated out as coming from the general (no specific location) “Terra Australes” section of Lesueur's archive, taking photographs where possible in the low light circumstances. There was the usual and understandable, “no flash” stipulation; SOP when dealing with historic documents.
Unfortunately I was not able to get access to any of the Le Havre collection of Lesueur's paintings during the day and a half the curator was available. Therefore the visit was a limited success; I got barely what I needed and not what I really wanted.
Coding of the drawings, and hence my photographs, was according to the published, Societe Geologique de Normandie, 76130 -76443 (Charles ROUX & Jacqueline BONNEMAINS, 1984) catalogue.
On the 1/09/2011 I returned by train to Paris and completed my scheduled three-hour afternoon session in the Paris, National Natural History Museum, Central Library archive.
*Special Note 1: It was now obvious that Lesueur was collating his drawings and paintings into a taxonomic text-book based on fish order and the drawings/paintings donated to both Le Havre and Paris MNHM were in that format, not in the chronological or geographic sequence that they were originally produced. This makes actually identifying what artwork/drawings were created during the Baudin voyage very difficult unless Lesueur noted the date or location on the artwork itself, which he only did on relatively few of his works.
J. Bonnemains painstakingly noted and catalogued these identifiable works for the Le Havre collection. It seems from her catalogue that only about 20-30 drawings can be attributed with any certainty to the “landings” in the Baudin voyage. She also identified the drawings from the general “Terra Australes” section of Lesueur's archive (based on dates??), collated into four boxes, which I was able to go through attempting to identify the “tropical species” and therefore where on the Australian voyage they were likely to have been produced. The numbering of drawings in the boxes, particularly in box 4, was higher than that recorded in the catalogue, suggesting that a second volume may exist.
J. Bonnemains painstakingly noted and catalogued these identifiable works for the Le Havre collection. It seems from her catalogue that only about 20-30 drawings can be attributed with any certainty to the “landings” in the Baudin voyage. She also identified the drawings from the general “Terra Australes” section of Lesueur's archive (based on dates??), collated into four boxes, which I was able to go through attempting to identify the “tropical species” and therefore where on the Australian voyage they were likely to have been produced. The numbering of drawings in the boxes, particularly in box 4, was higher than that recorded in the catalogue, suggesting that a second volume may exist.
I have no indication from the Paris collection of any of the “Terra Australes” notation used by JB. Either I have not reached those records or they were not part of the collection she saw. However I now have a better “search image” of what to look for.
Special Note 2: The Baudin voyage stopped short of Queensland so I was never going to get my "perfect set of thesis images" but I can get the images of tropical fish that Lesueur saw and drew while in "Terra Australes". These same fish species, or very similar ones, he later painted extensively in the Caribbean, which I have already accessed/seen in the Paris archive. Therefore I do have an idea of the images he would have painted if he had got to Queensland, as a seed for my "contemporary art response".
No comments:
Post a Comment