Charles Alexandre Lesueur (January 1, 1778-December 12, 1846) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
naturalistNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
,
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
and explorer.
Lesueur was born in
Le HavreLe Havre is a city in north-western France situated on the right bank of the mouth of the Seine River as it flows into the Bay of the Seine in the English Channel. It is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region. The inhabitants of the city are called Havrais or...
.
In 1801 he traveled to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
as artist on the expedition of
Nicolas BaudinNicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a communer in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
. With
François PéronFrançois Auguste Péron was a French naturalist and explorer. He is credited with the first use of the term anthropology.-Explorations:...
he took over the duties as naturalist after the death of the expedition's zoologist
René MaugéRené Maugé was a French zoologist.Maugé sailed with his friend Nicolas Baudin to the West Indies between 1796 and 1798. He subsequently travelled to the Pacific with Baudin in 1800. Maugé was taken ill at Timor and died when the expedition arrived in Tasmania...
. Together they collected over 100,000 zoological specimens. Between 1815 and 1837 he lived in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
In 1833, he visited
Vincennes, IndianaThe city of Vincennes is the county seat of Knox County, Indiana. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. As of the 2000 census, the population was 18,701...
where he sketched the first known drawing of
GrouselandGrouseland, the William Henry Harrison Mansion and Museum, is a National Historic Landmark in architectural and historical fields. Grouseland is a large, two-story red brick home built for William Henry Harrison in Vincennes, Indiana during his term as Governor of the Indiana Territory...
, the mansion of
William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office...
.
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Charles Alexandre Lesueur (January 1, 1778-December 12, 1846) was a
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
naturalistNatural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, Natural history is the systematic...
,
artistThe definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. the worlds best artist is a man named mitchell peter lay who is often loved by the ladies. The common useage in both everyday speech and...
and explorer.
Lesueur was born in
Le HavreLe Havre is a city in north-western France situated on the right bank of the mouth of the Seine River as it flows into the Bay of the Seine in the English Channel. It is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Haute-Normandie region. The inhabitants of the city are called Havrais or...
.
In 1801 he traveled to
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
as artist on the expedition of
Nicolas BaudinNicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a communer in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
. With
François PéronFrançois Auguste Péron was a French naturalist and explorer. He is credited with the first use of the term anthropology.-Explorations:...
he took over the duties as naturalist after the death of the expedition's zoologist
René MaugéRené Maugé was a French zoologist.Maugé sailed with his friend Nicolas Baudin to the West Indies between 1796 and 1798. He subsequently travelled to the Pacific with Baudin in 1800. Maugé was taken ill at Timor and died when the expedition arrived in Tasmania...
. Together they collected over 100,000 zoological specimens. Between 1815 and 1837 he lived in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
In 1833, he visited
Vincennes, IndianaThe city of Vincennes is the county seat of Knox County, Indiana. It is located on the Wabash River in the southwestern part of the state. As of the 2000 census, the population was 18,701...
where he sketched the first known drawing of
GrouselandGrouseland, the William Henry Harrison Mansion and Museum, is a National Historic Landmark in architectural and historical fields. Grouseland is a large, two-story red brick home built for William Henry Harrison in Vincennes, Indiana during his term as Governor of the Indiana Territory...
, the mansion of
William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office...
. The mansion is today a National Historic Landmark. In the years 1825–1837 Lesueur lived in
IndianaIndiana is a U.S. state, the 19
th admitted to the Union. It is located in the Great Lakes region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16
th in population and 17
th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38
th in land area, and is the...
.
Pictured here is the
oilOil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil — especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their...
portraitA portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this reason, in photography a portrait is generally not a...
by
Charles Willson PealeCharles Willson Peale was an American painter, soldier and naturalist.-Early life:Peale was born in Chester, Queen Anne's County, Maryland, the son of Charles Peale and his wife Margaret. In 1749 his brother James Peale was born. Charles became an apprentice to a saddle maker when he was thirteen...
of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. The original hangs in the reading room of the of Ewell Sale Stewart Library in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.
In 1845 he was appointed curator of the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle du Havre.
Further reading
- Josephine Mirabella Elliott and Jane Thompson Johansen, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur: Premier Naturalist and Artist, New Harmony, Indiana, 1999.
- Claus Nissen: Die zoologische Buchillustration. Ihre Bibliographie und Geschichte. Vol. I: Bibliographie. Anton Hiersemann, Verlag 1969. Page 252.
- R. W. G. Vail, The American Sketchbooks of Charles Alexandre Lesueur, 1816-1837, American Antiquarian Society, 1938.
- Cédric Crémière et Gabrielle Baglione, Lesueur, Peintre voyageur, Un trésor oublié, coll. Très Grande Bibliothèque Thalassa, Éditions de Conti, Paris, 2009 ( isbn : 13 978-2-35103-011-0)
External links
- Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) naturalist, artist
- Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Le Havre (Lesueur Collection)
- Fishes Described and Drawn by C. A. Lesueur
- Graptemys geographica Lesueur (Map turtle, first described by Lesueur)
- Maclurites magnus Lesueur
- Alex the explorer, the hero of a new graphic novel
- Baudin's voyage - State Library (South Australia)
- Historic New Harmony (Indiana)
- L'expédition Baudin en Australie - Université de La Rochelle
- Charles A Lesueur Papers - Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections (Indiana, USA). Works of art on paper, including pencil, pastel, charcoal and watercolor sketches by artist and naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Virginia Dupalais, and Lucy Sistare [Say].
- La collection Lesueur, Museum, La Havre, France