Charles-Alexandre Lesueur by Nora

In the year 1804, a pair of ships filled with weary French seamen sailed into their home port after a grueling trip. One of the men was Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, who would later go on to become renowned for his writings and sketches depicting aquatic life (works which earned him a mention in Servants of the Map). During the voyage, the men had observed the wildlife of Australia and Tasmania and attempted to chart those countries' coasts. The mission had spanned three and a half years and had been plagued by bad luck: arguments between crew members led to some of the sailors abandoning the mission. Others of the crew succumbed to stress and exertion, and the plan to map the coastlines was ultimately a failure. To top off these sailors' misfortunes, much of the French population was so concerned about the events of the Napoleonic Wars that the return of the expedition went relatively unnoticed. However, it would soon be discovered that the ships had brought back with them a great deal of valuable information.
Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, a young man of twenty-two, was an artist who had originally joined the crew as an assistant gunner, all the artists' posts having been taken. As deaths and dissent diminished the crew, though, Lesueur eventually ascended to the position he wanted. With the assistance of a naturalist named Francois Peron, Lesueur collected about 100,000 animal specimens, both living and dead. Using these specimens and his observations of animals in the wild, he created approximately 1,500 detailed sketches. These sketches were extremely valuable to Europeans because, at the time, no other such sketches existed. Europeans had heard descriptions of the kinds of animals that lived "Down Under," but these descriptions were sparse and often flawed. The specimens Lesueur captured allowed the people of Europe to see and understand what the animals of Australia and Tasmania really looked like, while his sketches (which he later reproduced in watercolor on vellum) allowed images of the animals to be put on record and to be distributed to those who did not have access to the specimens themselves. The expedition that had previously been discounted was now seen as a source of useful and interesting information.
Lesueur spent the next few years conducting research, together with Peron, on various sea animals-mollusks, jellyfish, and the like- that lived in the waters around France, and then writing papers on their findings. His next very significant endeavor was a trip to the United States in the company of eminent naturalist William Maclure. They and their companions traveled to the city of Philadelphia, where they remained for several years, and then to Mt. Vernon in Indiana and to New Orleans. During this trip, Lesueur conducted the studies for which he is perhaps best known: those of freshwater fish in North America. He performed some of the first ichthyological surveys of the Great Lakes and produced a great number of papers and sketches on fish and other underwater life. During this period, he also did some work that was not scientific in nature. He painted some portraits of people and was commissioned to paint a theatre curtain.
After his work in America, Lesueur returned to his native France. There, he spent a year as the curator of the Museum of Natural History in Havre and gave art lessons to aspiring sketchers. He also continued his studies of aquatic animals, branching out into research on tortoises and snakes as well.
After the initial period just after the return from his first expedition, when his work remained undiscovered, the scientific community welcomed and valued Lesueur's sketches and writings. Both are detailed, clear, and concise, making them easy to interpret and of great value to the researchers following in his footsteps. Although he is not well known by the general population, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur's efforts had a great influence on naturalists and continue to do so today.
Fuller, Errol. “Voyage of a Painter — Charles-Alexandre Lesueur.” Natural History April 1998.
Lesueur appears in the story "Two Rivers" as a minor character to whom Caleb is introduced at a party. When Lesueur learns that Caleb's father was the author of a book connecting fossils with the biblical flood braved by Noah, he is scornful of Caleb. This embarrasses Caleb greatly and shows how strong an impact his father's actions often have on Caleb's life


Kimberling, Clark. “Charles-Alexandre Lesueur.” Clark Kimberling. University of Evansville. 19 October 2007.