I was not due to start at the MNHM until 2.00 pm so used the morning to get EURO's at a Bank ATM via my Qantas Cashcard and to look for a shop selling simple cutlery/cooking utensils.
The Bank was relatively easy although a surprising distance from the Cite (when it is open there are ATM's in the main Cite administration building). No luck with the utensils. At the moment I am using disposable plastic spoons/forks from the microwave TV dinners.
I had one win, I called past the on-campus Cafe, in the basement of one of the Maisons, and it was open! I think there was a major conference being held somewhere in the Cite and it was worth their while to open early. Had my first coffee since leaving London. Reduced hours, breakfast and lunch. only but it is open.
Grabbed a TESCO equivalent sandwich, for about the same nominal cost, from a local Supermarket. My favourite market is closed for renovations so I have had to "venture out" a bit. That was lunch "on the go" as I hopped on the 67 Bus and headed for the MNHM.
I got there at about 2.00 pm and was let in to the archive section. There two manuscript boxes waiting for me so I hooked up my laptop and got to work. To my surprise the lady opposite was using a camera so I asked had the rules changed and yes they had. I can photograph the drawings/paintings that I am interested in. Excellent news.I ordered the same manuscripts for tomorrow but I will bring the camera.
After working my way through the two manuscripts I was struck (again) with how difficult it was to place the drawing in any one time and place. I reviewed my notes from 2011 (feasibility tour) and it was now obvious that towards the end of his career Lesueur was collating his drawings and paintings into a taxonomic text-book based on fish genera/order. The drawing/painting collections were donated to the respective museums in that format, not in the chronological or geographic sequence that they were originally produced.
This makes identifying what artwork/drawings were done 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. Jacqueline Bonnemains, the previous curator of the Lesueur collection at Le Havre, painstakingly noted and catalogued these for the Australian voyage. 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 last time, attempting to identify the “tropical species” and therefore where on the Australian voyage they were likely to have been produced.
I have no indication from the Paris MNHM collection of any of the “Terra Australes” notation used by Ms Bonnemains. Either I have not seen those records or they were not part of this collection. Going through the MNHM collection again in 2015 I hit the same problems where Leseuer has chronologically scrambled the drawing to fit his genera/order groupings for his text book. There is also very little to guide where each species/drawings was from geographically. Failing better information then the Le Havre categorisation (i.e. Charles ROUX & Jacqueline BONNEMAINS, 1984 catalogue) is likely to be the best available.
Working from the Le Havre drawing to the small paintings in Lesueur's manuscripts allows at least some of the "Terra Austrles" species to be identified.
No comments:
Post a Comment