As a nation, the French have never been inclined to leave their homeland permanently. The turbulent political climate of late 18th and 19th century France, however, induced the migration of monarchists and republicans alike, all seeking adventure and advancement in the Australian colonies.
Although French place names remain along the coastline of the continent to mark the achievements of her mariners, France never claimed the areas of the Australian coast discovered by her navigators. While few French people have been associated with the exploration of inland Australia, they were perhaps among the country's first tourists.
Aide-de-camp: Francis Barrallier
Francis Barrallier (1773-1853) was one of the colony's earliest French settlers. Escaping to England with his parents when Napoleon took Toulon in 1793, Barrallier embarked on the Speedy to join the NSW Corps in November 1799, reaching Sydney in April 1800. His travelling companions included Philip Gidley King, returning with his family to assume governorship of the colony, and the two men struck up a friendship.
During his three years in the colony, Ensign Barrallier undertook various duties: he was aide-de-camp to the Governor, cartographer, engineer, architect, ship designer and explorer. In 1802, Governor King sent Barrallier on an 'embassy to the King of the Mountains'. The Great Dividing Range blocked expansion of the colony into the interior of the continent. Barrallier led two expeditions into the foothills of the Blue Mountains in an attempt to find a passage to the west but his party was soon forced to turn back.
Barrallier also took an enlightened interest in the local Aboriginal people and he is believed to have first recorded the Aboriginal call 'coo-ee' which Pierre-Francois Bernier (1779-1803), astronomer to the Baudin expedition (1800-1804), set to musical notation. Leaving the colony in 1803, Barrallier continued a successful military career and died in England in 1853.
Explorers and tourists: Baudin, Freycinet and Pellion
Napoleon ordered the Baudin expedition, 1800-1804, to conduct a survey of the Australian coastline. Along the way, Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) encountered Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) who was undertaking the same task for the British. The two expeditions met in April 1802, off the coast of Encounter Bay, South Australia, which Flinders' named to commemorate the event.
Francois Peron (1775-1810), the naturalist on the Baudin expedition, published an account of the journey, richly illustrated by artists and scientists, including reknowned natural history artist Charles Lesueur (1778-1846).
After Napoleon's final defeat in 1815, King Louis XVIII was restored to the French throne. Keen to raise the prestige of France, Louis de Freycinet (1779-1842) embarked on a scientific expedition around the world, 1817-1820. The Uranie arrived in Sydney in November 1819.
During the Freycinet expedition's six week stay, Governor Macquarie invited the party to undertake a guided tour of the Blue Mountains led by William Lawson, one of the three explorers who had blazed the original trail. Travelling along the new road to Bathurst, the French were among the first Europeans to see the interior of NSW. Jacques Arago (1790-1855) and Alphonse Pellion, the two expedition artists, took this opportunity to document the indigenous Australians they encountered along the way.
Later scientific voyages were conducted by Louis Isadore Duperrey (1786-1865) and Jules Dumont D'Urville (1790-1842). Duperrey's voyage, 1822-1825, aboard Coquille was largely scientific with an emphasis on natural history, meteorology and magnetism. He had been previously been second lieutenant under Freycinet.
Durmont D'Urville, who was second in command on Duperrey's voyage, led his own expedition on the Astrolabe, 1826-1829. His objective was to investigate reported relics of the La Perouseexpedition in the Pacific, as well as examining possible sites for a French penal settlement.
Consuls and visitors: Delessert and Vigors
On 8 August 1839, King Louis Philippe signed a decree creating a French consulate in Sydney, convinced this town would become the major political and commercial centre of the Pacific. It was the first foreign consulate in Australia and the first French consul, Jean Antoine Marie Faramond, took up his post in May 1842.
Faramond flew the French flag from the roof of his Millers Point residence on the Sydney foreshore, giving indisputable visibility to French presence in the colony. Louis Sentis, who succeeded Faramond in 1852, moved the consulate to the 19th century French enclave of Hunters Hill.
Eugene Delessert, sketcher and traveller, was born in France. He embarked on a world tour in 1844, reaching Sydney in December 1845. During his stay in NSW, Delessert was befriended by Consul Faramond and entertained by some of the colony's most prominent families. After his return to Paris in 1847, Delessert published two illustrated accounts of his travel experiences.
Little is known about the Frenchman who painted this rare picture of convicts writing letters at Sydney Harbour's Cockatoo Island. Subtitled "Canary Birds", it records a popular 19th century nickname for the prisoners, clothed in their yellow uniforms marked with a broad arrow. Signed 'P.D.V', Phillipe de Vigors has been suggested as the artist.
The art of discovery
Jacques Arago (1790-1855) and Alphonse Pellion were employed as artists on Louis de Freycinet's scientific expedition (1817-1820). It was their task to create visual records of the people and places encountered during the voyage which were used to illustrate the published account of the expedition.
Pencil and watercolour sketches were done on the spot, with notes taken from life so that detail could be added later. These field drawings were used to prepare the final artwork for the illustrations which were etched onto copper plates prior to printing. Often, as in this example, original drawings were combined or rearranged. The printed stipple and line etching was then coloured in, by hand, to match the notes recorded on the original field drawing.
The Freycinet expedition's discoveries were published as an eight volume work, Voyage autour du monde between 1824 and 1844. Contributing to this work were Freycinet and each of the scientists on board the expedition.
Administrative / Biographical Note
Alphonse Pellion was a mid-shipman on board the French vessel L'Uraine, commanded by Louis de Freycinet, during its round the world trip between 1817 and 1820. The expedition, essentially a scientific one with a significant compliment of naturalists and artists, concentrated on the Pacific region. The expedition was particularly interested in recording ethnographic information about the indigenous people it encountered.
The expedition visited Sydney in November and December of 1819. During that time Pellion made a number of trips in NSW, including a visit across the Blue Mountains to Bathurst in late November, early December 1819.
Many of Pellion's drawings were published in the 'Atlas Historique' volume of the 1825 official account of the voyage. This volume, 'Voyage autour du monde : fait par ordre du roi sur les corvettes de S.M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les annes 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820 : Atlas historique, Paris, 1825', was arranged by fellow expedition artist Jacques Arago.
Purchased Christie's, The Freycinet Collection, London, Sept 2002
This small collection records some Dharug men Pellion met in the Nepean district, who probably lived around Regentville where he stayed on the way to Bathurst, and two men from the Springwood district, also encountered on this trip.
A translation of Pellion's account of his excursion to Bathurst can be found in Olive and W.L. Harvard, 'Some Early French visitors to the Blue Mountains and Bathurst' in the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, vol. XXIV, 1938 p.245-260.
The drawings in this collection could be studio drawings, made as preparatory works for the published plates. It is unclear whether Pellion actually made them on the spot in NSW, or whether they were worked up later, in the studio, from his field sketches.
Signatures / Inscriptions
Title (below image) translated: Savages from New South Wales, from real life in their camp close to Sydney, 20 December 1819
Inscription (upper left) translated: Tara / soft black hair (oily) / red-black colour / old black garment / tattoos on the chest and hump / dark shaped iris
Inscription (upper right) translated: Perva / red coat, dirty / yellow collar / soft black hair / red-black colour / round shaped iris
The drawing has partial inscriptions at lower section.
Pellion, a topographical artist and mid-shipman, was a member on the Louis de Freycinet French expedition which visited Sydney in November and December 1819. In late November 1819 Pellion, with two French companions, set out for the recently established town of Bathurst.
Pellion's drawing of Tara and Perva inscribed with aide memoirs and colour notes strongly implies that these were made from life. It appears the drawing originally had modesty flaps covering the genitalia. In the official account of the expedition, Tara is said to be from the Nepean district. See Plate 100 `Nlle. Hollande: Port-Jackson. Sauvages des environs de la riviere Nepean. 1. Jedat; 2. Tara; 3. Nemare' in: `Voyage autour du monde : fait par ordre du roi sur les corvettes de S.M. l'Uranie et la Physicienne, pendant les annes 1817, 1818, 1819 et 1820 : Atlas historique / par Mrs. JS. Arago, A. Pellion &c'. Paris : Chez Pillet An, Imprimeur-Libraire, 1825.
`Tara [&] Perva / pen and ink portrait of two Aboriginal men by Alphonse Pellion' (PXD 923/1) in: `Drawings and etchings of Nepean and Springwood Aboriginal men by and after Alphonse Pellion, 1819' which seems to be a later version probably made in preparation for publication (although never published).
Also from the same collection: `Preparatory drawings and etchings at various states for the plate 'Nlle Hollande. Port-Jackson. Sauvages des environs de la riviere Nepean. 1. Jedat; 2. Tara; 3. Nemare' / Alphonse Pellion (PXD 923/3-5) which shows Tara, derived from Pellion's unpublished full-length portraits of Tara & Perva. -- Curator's acquisition notes, Feb 2005, ML 04/995
Another field drawing by Pellion with the same title and date is held at SV/119.
French view of Sydney
This watercolour, titled Vue de Millers Point, Sydney, has been attributed to Eugene Delessert. It was painted from a high vantage point near Chippendale, NSW, and several landmarks can be seen. On the far right stands the French Consul's residence with its flag, on the left is Delessert's own home and, in the distance, the town of Parramatta can be seen. An engraving based on this view was included in Delessert's Voyages dans les deux oceans Atlantique & Pacifique, which was printed in Paris in 1848.