Charles Alexandre Lesueur

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Charles Alexandre Lesueur (January 1, 1778-December 12, 1846) was a French naturalist, artist and explorer.

Lesueur was born in Le Havre.

In 1801 he traveled to Australia as artist on the expedition of Nicolas Baudin. With François Péron he took over the duties as naturalist after the death of the expedition's zoologist René Maugé. Together they collected over 100,000 zoological specimens. Between 1815 and 1837 he lived in the United States In 1833, he visited Vincennes, Indiana where he sketched the first known drawing of Grouseland, the mansion of William Henry Harrison. The mansion is today a National Historic Landmark. In the years 1825–1837 Lesueur lived in Indiana.

Pictured here is the oil portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur. The original hangs in the reading room of the of Ewell Sale Stewart Library in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

In 1845 he was appointed curator of the Musee d'Histoire Naturelle du Havre.

[edit] Further reading

• Josephine Mirabella Elliott and Jane Thompson Johansen, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur: Premier Naturalist and Artist, New Harmony, Indiana, 1999.
• Claus Nissen: Die zoologische Buchillustration. Ihre Bibliographie und Geschichte. Vol. I: Bibliographie. Anton Hiersemann, Verlag 1969. Page 252.
• R. W. G. Vail, The American Sketchbooks of Charles Alexandre Lesueur, 1816-1837, American Antiquarian Society, 1938.

[edit] External links

• Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) naturalist, artist
• Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle, Le Havre (Lesueur Collection)
• Fishes Described and Drawn by C. A. Lesueur
• Graptemys geographica Lesueur (Map turtle, first described by Lesueur)
• Maclurites magnus Lesueur
• Alex the explorer, the hero of a new graphic novel
• Baudin's voyage - State Library (South Australia)
• Historic New Harmony (Indiana)
• L'expédition Baudin en Australie - Université de La Rochelle
• Charles A Lesueur Papers - Purdue University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections (Indiana, USA). Works of art on paper, including pencil, pastel, charcoal and watercolor sketches by artist and naturalist Charles Alexandre Lesueur, Virginia Dupalais, and Lucy Sistare [Say].
• La collection Lesueur, Museum, La Havre, France