Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

130
FRANCE
The kangaroos at Malmaison
Les cangourons à la Malmaison
The black swans at Malmaison
Les cygnes noirs à la Malmaison
before 1814
etching
Musée national des châteaux de Malmaison & Bois-Préau, Rueil-Malmaison
Don de la Société des Amis de Malmaison inv. MM. 74.7.3 (a-b)
The swan was a favourite exotic bird of
Josephine’s, and she surely knew Australia’s
rare black swans from the engraving
published in Jacques Labillardière’s account
(1800) of the 1791 d’Entrecasteaux
voyage to Australia in search of La Pérouse.
An 1808 guide to the great gardens of
France stated that ‘the park of Malmaison
is moreover remarkable for a number of
foreign animals ... two black swans, from
New Holland are particularly to be noticed:
a breed, unknown even to the celebrated
naturalist Mr Buffon’.
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