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Habitation de pecheurs de phoques au Port Western
Habitation de pecheurs de phoques au Port Western

Habitation de pecheurs de phoques au Port Western

Artist (French, 1801 - 1887)
Artist (1801-1866)
Editor (French, 1787 - 1849)
Date1833
Object number00008307
NameLithograph
MediumInk on paper
DimensionsOverall: 369 x 454 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionPrint titled 'Habitation de pecheurs de phoques au Port Western [Sealer's Hut at Western Port], after Louis Auguste de Sainson. Lithograph. Paris, 1833. Plate 21 from 'Voyage de la Corvette l'ASTROLABE, L'Atlas Historique; by Dumont d'Urville. Rear Admiral Jules Sébastien César Dumont d'Urville (1790-1842) was a French explorer and naval officer who explored the South and Western Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. This lithograph is one of many by official naval artist Louis Auguste de Sainson (1800-1887) which depicts d'Urville's 1826-1829 voyage to the Pacific aboard the French corvette ASTROLABE. This particular lithograph documents the time d'Urville's expedition spent at Westernport (a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia, which opens into Bass Strait), between 12 and 19 November 1826.HistoryThis particular lithograph depicts part of a British sealing colony at Westernport (a large tidal bay in southern Victoria opening into Bass Strait), where the ASTROLABE was anchored between 12 and 19 November 1826. Upon the ASTROLABE's arrival several of the sealers came out to meet the vessel. D'Urville recorded that: "As soon as the… [ASTROLABE] was tied up, the sealers climbed aboard, and the skipper offered his services, and presented his credentials for inspection. I thanked him in regard to his first offer, and as to his papers, I handed them back to him without even glancing at them, observing that this was not within my province and that as far as I was concerned, he could regard himself as completely independent in this deserted and as yet uninhabited region." ('Voyage of the Astrolabe - Volume 1' by Dumont d'Urville, p54) Westernport was first discovered by British explorer George Bass in 1797. In the early part of the 18th century British soldiers and convicts were ordered to establish a settlement there to guard against the threat of a French invasion. Given that it was 'as yet uninhabited' it can be concluded that, by the time d'Urville arrived, the area had once again been abandoned, (except by the sealers). Furthermore, a month after the French visit, Governor Darling dispatched a party to settle Westernport to ensure it would not be claimed by any other European power. As it turned out, the British established the settlement in the wrong place and, faced with a lack of water and a lack of arable land the settlement was abandoned in January, 1828. Following the ASTROLABE's arrival at Marseilles on 25 February 1829, de Sainson was involved for four years in the preparation of the atlas volumes, a process which included the transformation of his own watercolours into pictorial plates. His work was finally published in 1833. He left the navy in 1836 and turned down d'Urville's request for him to join his second expedition to the Pacific. He continued to work as an illustrator but little is known about his later life.SignificanceDepicts the first published landscape view of any part of Victoria - seal fishermen carrying a seal and their hut at Point Grant, south-west Phillip Island, Westernport.