Charles-Alexandre Lesueur

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Charles Alexandre Lesueur 1818, painted by Charles Willson Peale .
Hand-colored copper engraving by F. Lambert after paintings and drawings by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, the official artist of the Baudin expedition

Charles Alexandre Lesueur (born January 1, 1778 in Le Havre , † December 12, 1846 in Sainte-Adresse , Département Seine-Maritime ) was a French naturalist, explorer and painter. Its official biological author abbreviation is “ Les. ".

Live and act

The autodidact Ch.A. Lesueur accompanied Nicolas Baudin (1754–1803) as an artist in 1801 and his expedition to survey the Australian coast ( Baudin expedition ). On this trip he was friends with the zoologist François Péron .

Together with François Péron (1775-1810) he took over the scientific agendas of the expedition after the originally planned zoologist René Maugé de Cely fell ill on the crossing and died in Tasmania in 1802 . Together they documented over 100,000 zoological species and thus contributed significantly to the study of Australian fauna and to the success of Baudin's expedition.

Charles Alexandre Lesueur in New Harmony, painted by Karl Bodmer

Lesueur lived in the United States from 1815 to 1837 , first in Philadelphia , where he became one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences, and from 1826 to 1837 in New Harmony , Indiana. He studied fish and turtles primarily and published numerous articles in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia .

Lesueur was one of the pioneers of lithography in the USA. He returned to France in 1837. In 1844 he received the silver medal from the Société libre des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In recognition of his scientific life's work, he was appointed Chevalier de l'Order de la Légion d'Honneur . In 1845 the city of Le Havre offered him the position of curator of the Natural History Museum, Muséum d'histoire naturelle du Havre, where half of the collection had been contributed by himself.

After Lesueur is Mount Lesueur with the Lesueur National Park in Western Australia north of Perth named. The Australian species Lesueurs tree frog ( Litoria lesueurii (Duméril & Bibron, 1841)), Lesueurs velvet gecko ( Amalosia lesueurii (Duméril & Bibron, 1836)) and the Agame Intellagama lesueurii (Gray, 1831) also remind of his research.

Memberships

When La Société Cuvierienne was founded in 1838 , he was one of the 140 founding members of the society.

literature

  • Claus Nissen: The zoological book illustration. Your bibliography and history. Volume I: Bibliography . Anton Hiersemann, Verlag 1969. Page 252.
  • Josephine Mirabella Elliott, Jane Thompson Johansen: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur: Premier Naturalist and Artist , without location (probably: New Harmony) 1999. English text. (Biography, selected bibliography, overview of the complete works, excerpts from letters, selected drawings and prints mainly from the holdings of the Muséum du Havre.)
  • Sketches of New Harmony by Charles Alexandre Lesueur. In: Indiana Historical Commission: New Harmony as seen by participants and travelers. Porcupine Press, Philadelphia 1975. (Drawings by New Harmony from the holdings of the Muséum du Havre with explanations in English, unfortunately in poor quality.)
  • Jacqueline Bonnemains: Charles-Alexandre Lesueur en Amérique du Nord (1816 - 1837) , èditions du Muséum du Havre, Dossier 39 catalog et planches, no 70, Octobre 2002. (Drawings of America from the holdings of the Muséum du Havre with French explanations. )
  • Société Cuvierienne: List of the Premiers Fondateurs de La Société Cuvierienne, Association universelle pour l'avancement de la Zoologie, de L'Anatomie comparée et de la Palaeontologie . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 1 , 1838, p. 189-192 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

Commons : Charles Alexandre Lesueur  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778–1846) biography in English ( memento of the original from December 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.abc.net.au
  2. ^ Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778–1846) naturalist, artist
  3. ^ Société Cuvierienne, p. 190.
personal data
SURNAME Lesueur, Charles-Alexandre
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lesueur, Charles Alexandre
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French naturalist, explorer and painter
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1778
PLACE OF BIRTH Le Havre
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1846
Place of death Sainte address