Louis Le Breton’s New Zealand

Turnbull Library Record, Volume 15, Issue 2, 1 October 1982, Page 95

Louis Le Breton’s New Zealand

R. D. J. COLLINS

In common with earlier voyages of discovery despatched by the French Government to the Pacific, that of the Astrolabe and the Z'elee which sailed from France in September 1837 under the command of Dumont D’Urville counted among its scholars and scientists an official artist, Ernest-Auguste Goupil. The expedition’s commander spoke well of his work in a report published in France in November 1838, but Goupil died in Tasmania at the beginning of 1840 and the latter part of the voyage —the second descent to the Antarctic, the Auckland Islands, New Zealand and the return to France —was recorded by Louis Le Breton alone. 1

Louis-Auguste-Marie Le Breton was born at Douarnenez, Brittany, on 15 January 1818, the son, grandson and (probably) nephew of doctors. 2 He received his secondary education at Quimper, and entered the Naval Medical School at Brest on 1 March 1836. His appointment as surgeon on th e Astrolabe (23 July 1837) followed almost immediately on his graduation (8 June 1837) with the rank of‘chirurgien entretenu de la marine de 3 e classe’, and on 7 September the voyage began. Although no reliable evidence has yet been unearthed to clarify the nature of his artistic training, we may assume that he received some elements in Quimper and made still further progress during his months at Brest, since draughtsmanship was a basic skill for an officer in the nineteenth century French navy. The recognition his gifts received during the expedition from none less than Dumont D’Urville 3 must have contributed to the decision taken shortly after the return to France to become a professional artist. Partly to this end, he initiated a series of letters and ministerial minutes culminating in the release of his most successful drawings for exhibition in the 1841 Paris Salon. His work was to appear in these, the most important art exhibitions in nineteenth century France, on two further occasions during the 1840 s, but the critics appear to have maintained a unanimous silence concerning his watercolours and oil paintings, and this potential career drew to a discreet close about the end of the decade.

Meanwhile, in April 1841 he had been seconded to the editorial team preparing the official account of the voyage for publication, his specific responsibility being the preparation and the supervision of the lithographic plates by which his own work is best known. There is no evidence to suggest that at this time he himself drew any

stones, although he later became well-known as a lithographer specialising in nautical subjects. The world of the illustrated magazines, with their profusion of wood-engravings, was another realm into which he was soon initiated. The earliest woodblocks after his drawings which we have located are direct reflections of his Pacific travels, although others —redrawn from sketches supplied by the newspapers’ correspondents, or from photographs—suggest that his personal knowledge was called upon, occasionally, when a Pacific subject was required. But here, too, his broad knowledge of matters nautical was put to good use, and his reputation extended far beyond the narrow limits of this present study. These activities, which he pursued until the eve of his death on 31 August 1866, should not let us forget his continued service in the navy, as a surgeon on the Berceau stationed in the Indian Ocean in 1844 and 1845, and from 1848 as a draughtsman in the Department of Maps and Charts.

Until the recent discovery of an album of drawings by Le Breton, and further research into illustrations reproduced in nineteenth century French periodicals, his known contribution to New Zealand art history was restricted in published works to 12 lithographs and two engravings after his drawings. These, with the one original watercolour known, broadly capture the period spent on the New Zealand coasts, visiting successively the Auckland Islands, Otago Peninsula and Harbour, Akaroa and the Bay of Islands from 7 March to 4 May 1840. 4 The album and wood-engravings do not in any way modify the historical record but enrich our knowledge of his vision of New Zealand and allow a reassessment of his art. This article is chiefly concerned with a description of the newly discovered drawings of New Zealand in the album, a complete listing of his works pertaining to that country, whether extant or not, and their relation to other versions.

In 1977 the municipal library of Saint Brieuc in Brittany acquired part of the personal library of a local historian, Ph. T. Salaun, which included an album of drawings by Le Breton dating from the voyage of the Astrolabe. 5 It has suffered greatly with the passage of time, many pages have been cut or torn out, and only four New Zealand subjects can be identified with certainty. They share with most of the other drawings in the album a vivacity and a spontaneity which is lost in the lithographed and engraved interpretations of his work. An unfinished Maori portrait (reproduced) with a close study of the moko, displays an unpatronising attitude to the sitter whose nobility recalls the finest Maori portraits of this period. It is an important addition to the corpus of early New Zealand art.

When, after the return to France, Le Breton took the first steps to obtain the release of his drawings with a view to exhibiting them in the Salon (they were in the possession of the naval authorities in Toulon, the Astrolabe's home port), he prepared a manuscript catalogue dated 8 January 1841, now among the naval archives deposited at the Archives Nationales, Paris. 6 In it he lists 174 works (of which 20 were New Zealand views) which he considered his

best, but not all the titles are represented by later lithographic versions. Conversely, some of the published plates do appear to have been derived from works on the list. Of all Le Breton’s originals we are at present able to locate only one, the view of Port Otago. This unsigned watercolour was purchased in London in June 1923 by Dr James Johnstone, a former Otago resident. 7 It is in the second volume of the Atlas pittoresque (2v., 1846) illustrating the Voyage au Pole Sud et dans VOceanie sur les corvettes VAstrolabe et la Z'elee execute par ordre du Roi pendant les ann'ees 1837-1838-1839-1840 sous le Commandement de M. Dumontd’Urville . . . (10v., 1841-46) that we find the largest group of Le Breton’s New Zealand views. Hitherto, with only the two versions of ‘Port Otago’ as a basis, any discussion of the evolution and development of Le Breton’s finished pictures was necessarily limited. If in this particular instance we assume that Sabatier worked from the watercolour (and this is not necessarily the case, for Le Breton could have prepared a monochrome version for the lithographer), we must recognise that he followed his model faithfully, with only slight modifications to the distant skyline and to the buildings in the immediate foreground. The contribution which the Saint Brieuc sketchbook can make to this discussion is of considerable importance and, even though the New Zealand subjects are too few to embrace all possible facets of the question, the comparisons which are possible are still revealing. 8

The central feature of the lithograph ‘Vue de l’Observatoire (aux lies Auckland)’ (plate 177) is, logically enough, two surveyors working at a table in front of a tent, their presence emphasised by the pale bush behind them. Other figures walk up the low hill to the right. The masts of both ships, seen end-on, appear above the same hill, and above the bushes slightly right of centre. A well-garnished double clothesline stretches between the tent and a tree. The partly ruined hut in the left foreground has a clearly-defined awning stretched in front of it. Detailed studies of vegetation spread across the entire foreground, from left to right.

In the Saint Brieuc drawing (reproduced) the foreground plants are only hinted at: one clump in the centre is fairly detailed, but the rest consists of no more than some rapid lines which leave the outer corners quite empty. The ruined hut is less carefully drawn and the awning, if such it is, is unrecognisable. The tent is further to the right than in the published plate. Human presence is much less conspicuous: the masts of only one ship can be seen, but side-on and closer to the centre of the skyline; tiny figures are clustered in the mouth of the tent and along the skyline immediately to the right; the clothesline, too, is unrecognisable; no-one climbs up the hill to the right; there are no surveyors.

It appears that Le Breton was touched by the loneliness, and the transient presence of puny man, whereas the ‘revised version’ of this scene affirms the functions and the achievement of the expedition. It is also, of course, more carefully composed.

The lithographic view of Akaroa Harbour (‘Baie d’Akaroa’, plate 185, reproduced) shows four proud vessels set in the middle distance, flags flying, their masts nearly reaching to the skyline. A dark featureless promontory extends from the right, a dark headland with indistinct features from the left. Along the shore stretches a confused assemblage of trees, buildings, a canoe and some small figures. Gaunt trees and clumps of foliage frame the foreground, and a leafless tree stands left of centre. In the corresponding drawing (‘Akaroha (Nile Zelande)’, reproduced), Le Breton succumbed to one conventional device—an overhanging tree in the left foreground—but it is treated summarily and the rest of the immediate foreground is left empty. The sailing ships are much more modest in scale, dominated completely by the distant hills: two, seen here end-on, are thus less imposing than they will become in the lithograph. A canoe with sail raised is seen a short distance from shore. On the headland in the left middle distance stand two clearly defined buildings, while the promontory

to the right is wooded and varied in outline. A European cottage, four Maori huts and three storage platforms are visible along the shore. The wood-engraving (reproduced) which was published three

years before the lithograph shares elements of these two representations. The ships (here only three) dominate the skyline; the stark trees at the left and centre foreground are present, but the framing group at the right is now a cabbage tree standing behind a canoe; the two buildings in the left middle distance are faithfully shown, and the huts and storage platforms are given greater prominence—an attempt is even made to show carving on barge boards and a doorway.

In the drawing it is the natural grandeur of the harbour and the interest inherent in the small settlement which hold the draughtsman’s eye; in the wood-engraving, despite the scale at which the ships are shown, it is not their presence which dominates, but the structures in the foreground —the ethnographic potential of the scene is stressed; in the lithograph it is the presence and thus the function of the ships which is the dominant element. Although we have as yet no means of knowing whether similar transformations lie behind the other published New Zealand lithographs, we are tempted to suppose that they do. In a letter from Le Breton to Dumont D’Urville of 6 January 1841 we read: ‘. . . at your request I executed drawings of which you know the number, harassed by Monsieur Hombron, I worked on natural history; 4or 500 drawings are the result’. 9 A global total? Or a sub-total embracing only the natural history pieces? We have

no way of knowing, but what in any case is already clear is that very few of them were called upon in the preparation of the atlas volume Zoologie of the voyage published from 1842 to 1853. Nine plates in all acknowledge a debt to Le Breton, and of them only two are of New Zealand interest.

The preparation of these plates coincided with the appearance of the first wood-engravings after Le Breton in the illustrated weeklies, the Magasin pittoresque (founded in 1833) and the Illustration (founded in 1843). At this period he seems simply to have provided the engravers with drawings from his portfolios, but later he will more frequently redraw the sketches of others, as a preliminary to their being engraved. The New Zealand subjects which fall into this category —whether published in periodicals or books —are not a major part of his total output, but do at least extend the range of images he has left us of New Zealand, and more particularly of Banks Peninsula, in 1840. 10 It is our assumption that Le Breton’s initiation into the art of lithography came during the period when he was supervising the preparation of the plates of the Atlas pittoresque, but his earliest original lithograph seems to date from 1849. Thereafter his production continues until 1865, but among the collection of approximately 350 pieces by him held in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, only one (‘Naufrage . . . pres de Kaipara . . .’, reproduced) has any New Zealand connection, and that is more superficial than real.

CATALOGUE

In chronological order, by groups of works according to type Pencil drawings, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library (all reproduced by permission):

[Maori portrait with half moko] Pencil, unsigned, undated (between 30 March and 4 May 1840), no inscription, album page 250 X 340 mm, image ca. 220 X 190 mm partly masked by unrelated drawing mounted on same page, folio 8 recto. This drawing may have been the original of the grotesque wood-engraving Magasin pittoresque , 1843, p. 333. Numbers 148 and 156 in the manuscript catalogue are both ‘Portraits de naturels’. Atterrissage a Akaroha-bay Pencil, 213 X 325 mm, mounted in album, folio 11 recto, unsigned, undated, title inscribed on album page. The event illustrated occurred on 8 April 1840. Unrelated to any work with which we are acquainted, but may correspond to number 150 in the manuscript list, ‘Vue de l’atterrissage de la Baie Akaroa’.

Observatoire aux iles Auckland mars 1840 Pencil, 213 X 325 mm, mounted in album, folio 23 recto, unsigned, undated (between 11 and 20 March 1840), title inscribed on album page. Corresponds to number 144, ‘[Vue] de l’Observatoire’ in Le Breton’s manuscript catalogue, and to Atlas pittoresque plate 177.

Akaroha (Nile Zelande) Pencil, album page 250 X 340 mm, folio 39 recto, unsigned, undated (between 8 and 17 April 1840), inscribed lower centre. Corresponds to Atlas pittoresque plate 185, and perhaps also to number 151, ‘[Vue] du Havre d’Akaroa’ in Le Breton’s manuscript list. A wood-engraving, closer to the drawing than to the lithograph, appeared in the Magasin pittoresque, 1843, p. 333. Works listed in Le Breton’s manuscript catalogue (Marine 884 1009, Archives Nationales, Paris): (references to plates are those in the Atlas pittoresque)

lies Auckland No 140 Vue de l’lle aux Basaltes [cf. plate 178] 141 ~ d’un Cap 142 ~ d’une Grotte [cf. plate 179] 143 ~ du Mouillage 144 ~ de l’Observatoire [cf. drawing, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library, and plate 177] 145 ~ de la foret (sic) 146 ~ du Lagon

Nouvelle Zelande No 147 Vue de la Baie Otago [cf. watercolour, Hocken Library, and plate 180] 148 Portraits de naturels 149 Dessin d’une Double Pirogue 150 Vue de l’atterrissage de la Baie Akaroa [‘de la Baie’ is crossed out and replaced by something illegible, cf. drawing, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library, and wood-engraving, ‘Entree de la Baie d’Akaroa’] 151 ~ du Havre d’Akaroa [cf. drawing, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library; plate 185; and wood-engraving ‘Baie d’Akaroa’] 152 ~ du fond du havre d’Akaroa [cf. wood-engraving ‘Baie d’Akaroa, etablissement de Canterbury’] 153 ~ du village d’Akaroa 154 Dessin de pirogue d’Akaroa [There is no number 155] 156 Portraits de naturels 157 Vue de I’Entree de la Baie des lies [cf. plate 182] 158 ~ de la Maison d’un chef ala B. des lies [cf. plate 184] 159 ~ generate de la Baie des lies [cf. plate 183] 160 Dessin de Pirogue

Watercolour: Port Otago, 1840 watercolour and charcoal, 343 X 479 mm, unsigned, undated, no inscription, Hocken Library, Dunedin. Purchased, London, June 1923, by Dr James Johnstone, and subsequently presented to the Hocken Library.

Lithographs in the Atlas pittoresque (1846) (listed in plate number order) 174: Baie de Sarah’s Bosom (lies Auckland) image 255 X 428 mm, lithographed by Sabatier. 175: Fond de la Baie de Sarah’s Bosom (lies Auckland) image 190 X 350 mm, lithographed by J. Guiaud. 176: Aiguade aux lies Auckland image 202 x 372 mm, lithographed by J. Guiaud. 177: Vue de l’Observatoire (aux lies Auckland) image 181 x 285 mm, lithographed by P. Blanchard. Derived from drawing, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library, and corresponds to Number 144 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘[Vue] de l’Observatoire’. 178: Ilot Basaltique dans la Baie Sarah’s Bosom image 185 X 322 mm, lithographed by Meyer. Corresponds to number 140 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘Vue de Pile aux Basaltes’.

179: Grotte sur Tile Enderby (lies Auckland) image 205 X 350 mm, lithographed by P. Blanchard. Corresponds to number 142 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘[Vue] d’une Grotte’. 180: Port Otago (Nouvelle Zelande) image 278 X 420 mm, lithographed by Sabatier. Corresponds to the Hocken Library’s watercolour and presumably to number 147 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘Vue de la Baie Otago’. 181: Mouillage d’Otago (Nouvelle Zelande) image 183 X 310 mm, lithographed by P. Blanchard. 182: Entree de la Baie des lies (Nouvelle Zelande) image 235 X 397 mm, lithographed by P. Blanchard. Corresponds to number 157 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘Vue de l’Entree de la Baie des lies’. 183: Mouillage de Korora-reka (Baie des lies) image 285 X 451 mm, lithographed by Sabatier. Possibly corresponds to number 159 in the manuscript catalogue ‘[Vue] generale de la Baie des lies’. 184: Cases de naturels (Baie des lies) image 185 X 303 mm, lithographed by P. Blanchard. May correspond to number 158 in the manuscript catalogue ‘[Vue] de la Maison d’un chef a la B[aie] des lies’. 185: Baie d’Akaroa (Nouvelle-Zelande) (reproduced) image 260 X 442 mm, lithographed by Sabatier. Apparently derived from drawing, Saint Brieuc Municipal Library. Possibly corresponds to number 151 in the manuscript catalogue, ‘[Vue] du Havre d’Akaroa’. A wood-engraving more closely related to the Saint Brieuc drawing appeared in the Magasin pittorcsque , 1843.

Henri-Pierre-Leon-Pharamond BLANCHARD was born in Lyons in 1805 and died in Paris in 1873. Of the major reference works consulted, only Jean Laran’s inventory of the post-1800 collections of the Cabinet des Estampes, Biblioth'eque Nationale, Paris (volume 2, 1937) refers to Blanchard’s activity as a lithographer. He travelled widely (Spain, North Africa, Mexico, Russia, the Caucasus) and was recognised as a specialist on exotic life. One series, Courses de Taureau, after his own drawings, was lithographed conjointly with Sabatier. He exhibited paintings in Paris from 1834 and in Lyons from 1839. Jacques GUIAUD was born in Chambery in 1811 and died in Paris in 1876. He is recorded as a painter of landscapes and genre subjects, as well as a lithographer. He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1831 to 1876, and was awarded medals in 1843 and 1846. ‘Meyer’ is perhaps Auguste-Etienne-Franpois MAYER, born in Brest in 1805, who died in Paris in 1890. He is recorded as a painter of seascapes, but no reference work consulted mentions any activity as a lithographer. The date of Leon-Jean-Baptiste SABATIER’s birth in Paris is not recorded: he died in that city in 1887. As well as his lithographs, Benezit cites Sabatier’s landscape and architectural drawings. He exhibited at the Salon from 1827 to 1870 and received a Third Class medal in 1839.

Engravings in the [Atlas] Zoologie (1842-53): Apteryx austral. Shaw (Oiseaux, Pl[anche]24) plate 413 X 278 mm, ‘Peint par Werner. Port [rait] d’apres Lebreton. Dirige par Borromee. Grave par Giraud’. A reversed wood-engraved version of this study appeared in the Magasin pittoresque, 1842, p. 393. Corfou Antipode. (Nob.) Jeune. (Oiseaux, Pl[anche]33) plate 410 X 276 mm, ‘Peint par Oudart, d’apres Lebreton. Dirige par Borromee. Grave par A. Dumenil’. This Yellow-eyed penguin, observed on the Auckland Islands, shares Plate 33 with a penguin from the Antarctic mainland, the ‘Dasyramphe d’Adelie’. Of the 12 birds and mammals (9 plates) reproduced after Le Breton in this atlas, these are the only New Zealand subjects. None of Le Breton’s original natural history drawings has been located, but the redrawn versions prepared for the engravers are in the library of the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. The kiwi is contained in ms 585 (folio 54, 457 X 317 mm).

There are records of two natural history painters, named WERNER working for the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, to which the Museum d’Histoire Naturelle was attached. The more celebrated, Jacques-Christophe (1798-1857) is best k own for a remarkable atlas of European birds. Jean-Charles is known to have worked between 1830 and 1860. The painter and lithographer Paul-Louis OUDART (b. Paris 1796) is recorded as a specialist in the field of natural history: he exhibited drawings of birds at the 1819 Salon. An engraver named BORROMEE is recorded working in Paris around 1828-1831, over ten years before the publication of this plate, but whether or not he was involved in its preparation we are unable to say. The only engraver named GIRAUD whom we have located and who could have done this plate, is Pierre-Franpois-Eugene, painter, pastellist, watercolourist, caricaturist and engraver, who was born in Paris in 1806 and died in that city in 1881. He entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in 1821 and received the Prix de Rome for engraving in 1826. He exhibited paintings at the Salon from 1831 to 1866, receiving medals in 1833 and 1863. No details have been found concerning the engraver A. DUMENIL.

Wood-engravings in periodicals: Nouvelle-Zelande. —Entree de la baie d’Akaroa, par M. Lebreton 82 X 151 mm (corners rounded), engraved by ABL (Andrew Best Leloir), Magasin pittoresque, 1843, p. 332. Unrelated to any drawing or lithograph we have located. Nouvelle-Zelande. —Baie d’Akaroa, par M. Lebreton (reproduced) 90 X 144 mm (corners rounded), signed LEBRETON. Del. lower left, engraved by A.B.L. (Andrew Best Leloir), Magasin pittoresque, 1843, p. 333. An adaptation of the drawing, Saint Brieuc, folio 39 recto. Peninsule de Banks. —Baie d’Akaroa, etablissement de Canterbury (a) 108 X 220 mm (corners rounded), signed L. LEBRETON lower right, engraved by HB C, L’lllustration, no 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 232.

(b) With the title ‘Peninsule de Banks.—Baie d’Akaroa, etablissement de Canterbury (Nouvelle-Zelande)’ and reduced to 103 X 222 mm (corners rounded), this block reappeared in the 100th issue of an unidentified serial published by Le Chevalier, rue Richelieu, 60, and Martinon, rue de Grenelle-St-Honore, 14, Paris. This view has no connection with any drawing or lithograph we have located, but could correspond to numbers 152 or 153 in Le Breton’s manuscript list. Village a Port-Cooper (a) 86 X 155 mm (corners rounded), signed L. LEBRETON lower left, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 233. (b) With the title ‘Nouvelle-Zelande.—Village de Port-Cooper’ and reduced to 86 mm X 137 mm, this engraving was subsequently re-used after 1867, in the section ‘Livre Quatorzieme, Oceanie’ of an unidentified book. Three houses, a pataka and all but the last two letters of the artist’s signature have been lost. This view has no connection with any drawing or lithograph we have located.

Le mont Egmont 85 X 155 mm (corners rounded), signed L. LEBRETON lower centre, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 233. As the Astrolabe did not visit the west coast of the North Island, this illustration cannot be derived from an original drawing by Le Breton. Un habitant de la Nouvelle-Zelande 80 X 70mm (irregular), signed LEBRETON lower right, engraved by ABL (Andrew Best Leloir), Magasin pittoresque, 1843, p. 333. The Saint Brieuc drawing folio 8 recto is of the same subject, but it is full-face with only half the tnoko drawn. The curious hat (?) is absent from the drawing in which the sitter wears a sort of boater. The engraving is grotesque and unsympathetic, whereas the drawing is the opposite.

Le chef 120 X 74mm (irregular), signed LL lower centre, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 232. La femme du chef 125 X 73mm (irregular), signed LL lower right, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no. 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 232. Neither ‘Le chef nor ‘La femme du chef can be related to any other recorded work by Le Breton, but it must be recalled that numbers 148 and 156 in his manuscript catalogue are both ‘Portraits de naturels’.

Pirogue de la Nouvelle-Zelande. —Dessin par M. Lebreton 89 X 147 mm (corners rounded), signed LEBRETON lower left, engraved by ANDREW B. L. (Andrew Best Leloir), Magasin pittoresque, 1847, p. 341. Numbers 149, 154 and 160 in Le Breton’s manuscript catalogue, are drawings of canoes. Museum d’histoire naturelle. —L’Apteryx, d’apres un dessin de M. Werner 133 X 140 mm (irregular), no engraver’s signature, Magasin pittoresque, 1842, p. 393. Despite the attribution in the caption/title, the relationship which this block obviously bears to the coloured engraving of the kiwi, which does acknowledge a

debt to Le Breton, earns it a place in this list. The bird is here turned to the right and there is some confusion and ambiguity in the treatment of the legs. Whereas in the engraving the far (right) foot is advancing, in this wood-engraving it is the near (but still apparently the right) foot that is advancing. L’ Apterix 100 X 70mm (irregular), signed LEBRETON lower left, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no. 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 233. This wood-engraving is a copy neither of the coloured engraving nor of the 1842 wood-engraving. The bird is turned to the right, but instead of walking is motionless and appears to be squatting.

Le Phormium tenax. 103 X 70mm (irregular), unsigned, no engraver’s signature, L’lllustration, no 450, 11 octobre 1851, p. 233. This block groups six separate illustrations showing the plant as a whole and five details. Although unsigned, we attribute the original drawings to Le Breton for it was he who provided the author of the article they illustrate with a lengthy and detailed description of the plant.

Episode de l’arrivee de M. Dumont d’Urville. 145 X 109 mm, signed LEBRETON lower left, engraved ANDREW BEST LELIOR (sic), place and date of publication unknown. This engraving is unrelated to any other recorded work by Le Breton. The canoes are apparently New Zealand ones.

Original Lithograph (reproduced): Naufrage de la corvette franfaise l’Alcmene / pres de Kaipara cote ouest de la Nouvelle Zelande / 3 Juin 1851. 367 X 600 min (image, corners rounded), drawn and lithographed by Louis Le Breton, published by Wild, Passage du Saumon, 38, Paris, and Gambart et Co., London, copyright deposit date, 853. (Biblioth'eque Nationale, Paris, Cabinet des Estampes, Dc.279.b.)

REFERENCES 1 The most accessible general account of the voyage is provided by John Dunmore, French Explorers in the Pacific, volume 2 (Oxford University Press, 1969), pp. 341-83. 2 Biographical details have been drawn chiefly from Le Breton’s personal file, Naval Archives, Service Historique de la Marine, Chateau de Vincennes, Vincennes, France and two collections on deposit in the Archives Nationales, Paris (mss Marine 5 JJ 158 bis and mss Marine 884 1009). Further information has been gleaned from obituary notices (Le Moniteur universel, no. 244, (ler septembre 1866) 1073; L’lllustration , 48, no. 1228, (8 septembre 1866) 155) and an article by Yves Tanneau, ‘Louis Le Breton Dessinateur (1818-1866)’, Bulletin de la Soci'et'e Archeologique du Finistere, XCV (1969) 85-9. 3 Contained in a long report published in the Moniteur universel, no. 315, (11 novembre, 1838), pp. 2430-2.

4 The most accessible detailed account of the New Zealand visit is found in Olive Wright, The Voyage of the ‘Astrolabe’ — lß4o, (Wellington, 1955). 5 This album was first described by Yves Tanneau, loc. cit. , when it was still in the Salaun collection. 6 The catalogue is titled ‘Liste des dessins aux terres australes dans Oceanic remis par M r Le Breton a M r le Commandant d’Urville’ (Marine 884 1009). The entries in the 1841 Salon catalogue (numbers 1230-1233) are too general to tell us whether any New Zealand scenes were among the 25 shown and no critic whom we have read mentions, let alone describes, Le Breton’s exhibits. 7 An account of this discovery was published in the Otago Daily Times , 8 August 1923. The vendor had other watercolours, presumably from the same source, which Dr Johnstone later regretted not having taken the time to look at. 8 The album contains numerous small studies which reappear in the lithographs integrated into larger compositions. 9 Archives Nationales, Paris (mss Marine SJJ 158 bis). 10 Our list of wood-engravings after Le Breton is based on a study of the Magasin pittoresque from 1840 and the Illustration from its foundation in 1843, supplemented by the offerings of chance and serendipity in the shops of Paris print-sellers. It is highly probable that this list is incomplete.