Exhibition labels & didactics - National Gallery of Victoria

THE BAUDIN EXPEDITION
AND THE ABORIGINAL PEOPLES
The Baudin voyage to the Terres Australes was the first French
scholarly expedition to place human observation among its primary
objectives. Its detailed instructions came from the Société
des Observateurs de l’Homme, or Society for the Observation
of Mankind (1799–1805). Work was undertaken under the
supervision of Francois Péron, the expedition’s naturalist, who guided
the artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit.
Péron led the zoological studies, oversaw the preparation of
specimens and taught Lesueur how to observe each animal in
order to accurately portray its anatomical features and lifelike traits.
Petit was responsible for drawing Indigenous peoples, his work
being also partly shared by Péron, who chose the sitters and the
actions to be portrayed. Péron also critiqued Petit’s first sketches,
with a view to their being worked up into more finished drawings.
The Baudin expedition had only brief periods of contact with
Australia’s Indigenous peoples, due to the amount of sailing time
required for the mapping of the country’s coasts. Nevertheless,
supervised by Péron, Petit and Lesueur were able to draw grave
sites, small sailing craft, everyday objects and various ceremonies
(such as customary dances).
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