pasifika

"A French sailor-artist on the South Seas
Well-known for its Oceania collections, the Library contains a number of volumes on French Pacific expeditions, including official accounts of the voyages of Nicolas Baudin (1800–1804), Louis de Freycinet (1817–1820), Louis Isidore Duperrey (1822–1825) and Jules Dumont D’Urville (1826–1829). Unlike most of the drawings that accompany these accounts, however, the illustrations by Félix Marant-Boissauveur are not the work of an official artist. They are the everyday observations of a ship’s purser (treasurer), recording the people and landscapes of port cities visited by l’Héroïne.
We learn early on that its author is an anonymous low-ranking sailor (with the slight privilege of being the Lieutenant’s secretary). He describes his close friendship with the artist:

Being young and not having a very strong liking to sea life, the Purser (Mr Boissauveur) had only come on this voyage to satisfy his craving to visit distant countries, to study the customs of their inhabitants, and at the various ports of call, to make use of his skill in drawing and painting, at which he was very good. It was very fortunate for me that, when tired of walking unsteadily on the deck, I could go down into the ward room and make sketches together with this worthy friend. There I would forget I was on a ship, we chatted about our relations just as if we were two brothers."

www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/french-sailor-artist-south-seas

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This is a high quality photo and I would like to invite you to my group :
www.flickr.com/groups/quid/

Friendly yours
Philippe😉

They don't look happy.