Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

134
Léon De WAILLY
French active 1801–24
Black Swans
Cygnes noirs
1806
watercolour, gum arabic
Collection of Count and Countess Charles-André Walewski
A pair of black swans specially reserved for
Josephine was sent back from Australia with
the first of Baudin’s ships, Le Naturaliste,
which arrived in France in June 1803.
They became celebrated throughout Europe
and bred successfully at Malmaison, their
numbers increasing to seven in all at the
time of Josephine’s death in 1814.
Empress Josephine was the first person
to breed black swans in captivity.
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