Charles Alexandre Lesueur

Charles Alexandre Lesueur
Lesueur in 1818, painted by Charles Willson Peale
Born1 January 1778
Le Havre
Died12 December 1846(1846-12-12) (aged 68)
Le Havre
NationalityFrench
Scientific career
FieldsNaturalist

Life

Charles Alexandre Lesueur (1 January 1778 in Le Havre – 12 December 1846 in Le Havre) was a French naturalist, artist, and explorer. He was a prolific natural-history collector, gathering many type specimens in Australia, Southeast Asia, and North America, and was also responsible for describing numerous species, including the spiny softshell turtle (Apalone spinifera), smooth softshell turtle (A. mutica), and common map turtle (Graptemys geographica). Both Mount Lesueur and Lesueur National Park in Western Australia are named in his honor.

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. In 1802, he made the only known sketches of the King Island emu in its natural habitat (the bird became extinct in 1822).

Between May 1816 and early 1837,[1] he lived and traveled widely in the United States, particularly in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri.[2] 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.

Self portrait from le Géographe
Drawing of jellyfish by Lesueur

From 1826 to 1837, Lesueur was based in New Harmony, Indiana, where he filled sketchbooks full of the finds discovered during the utopian adventure funded by his friend and former employer, American geologist William Maclure. He arrived in the boat Philanthropist (which he also sketched) with other intellectuals who came to live in the small town of New Harmony, on the Wabash River. He took research trips (including series of six flat-boat trips to New Orleans) and sketched people, small towns, and scenes continuously. He was in New Harmony when Prince Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuweid, Germany, and artist Karl Bodmer came to spend five months there in 1832–1833. Prince Maximilian said of Lesueur, "He had explored the country in many directions, was acquainted with everything remarkable, collected and prepared all interesting objects, and had already sent considerable collections to France."[3] Indeed, Lesueur sent specimens of unique fish, animals, and fossils, as well as artifacts he had dug from the Indian Mounds in New Harmony, back to France, where they remain.

Lesueur returned to France in 1837, only after his friends Thomas Say and Joseph Barabino had died and William MacClure had returned to Philadelphia, accompanied by many of his fine books. He had spent 21 years in the United States, but continued his scholarly studies and activities in France, where he resumed his occupation of artist-naturalist and began to catalogue his extensive research and artwork. At last, he was awarded the honor of Chevalier de l’Ordre Royal de la Légion d'honneur for his long years of work in the sciences.[4]

In March 1846, Lesueur was appointed curator of the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle du Havre. Nine months later, he died suddenly (12 December 1846) and was buried at Le Havre. In the 1900s, his work was finally published by the museum, totaling over 60 books, including reports of his zoological, geological, historical, and archaeological research, as well as studies of his life.[5] Pictured here is the oil portrait by Charles Willson Peale of Lesueur. The original hangs in the reading room of the Ewell Sale Stewart Library in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.

  • The Great Traveller Charles Alexandre Lesueur in the Forest Lithograph after the watercolor: Lesueur, the Naturalist at New Harmony by Karl Bodmer, circa 1832-1834
  • New Harmony, Indiana, in 1831, sketch from Charles Alexandre Lesueur

Eponyms

One species of frog, two species of lizards, and a species of jellyfish were named in honour of Lesueur (the last also honoring François Péron, also of the Baudin expedition):

Published works
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Descriptions of six new Species of the genus Firola, observed by Messrs. Le Sueur and Péron in the Mediterranean Sea, in the months of March and April, 1809. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1, 3–8.
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Characters of a new genus, and descriptions of three new species upon which it is formed; discovered in the Atlantic ocean, in the months of March and April, 1816. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(3), 37–41. (Read April 15, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Descriptions of three new species of the genus Raja. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(3), 41–43. (Read July 1, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Descriptions of two new species of the genus Gadus. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(5), 83–85. (Read August 26, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Descriptions of a new species of the genus Cyprinus. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(5), 85–86. (Read August 19, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. An account of an American species of Tortoise, not noticed in the systems. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(5), 86–88. (Read September 23, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. A new genus of Fishes, of the order Abdominales, proposed, under the name of Catostomus; and the characters of this genus, with those of its species, indicated. Part 1. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(5), 88–96. (Read September 16, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. A new genus of Fishes, of the order Abdominales, proposed, under the name of Catostomus; and the characters of this genus, with those of its species, indicated. Part 2. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(6), 102–111. (Read September 16, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Descriptions of four new species, and two varieties, of the genus Hydrargira. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(6), 125–134. (Read October 21, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Observations on several species of the genus Actinia; illustrated by figures. Part 1. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(6), 149–154. (Read October 21, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1817. Observations on several species of the genus Actinia; illustrated by figures. Part 2. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1(6), 169–189. (Read October 21, 1817) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1818. Descriptions of several new species of North American fishes. Part 1. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1, 222–235. (Read March 3, 1818) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1818. Observations on a new genus of fossil shells. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1, 310–313. (Read June 30, 1818) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1818. Descriptions of several new species of North American fishes. Part 2. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1, 359–365. (Read March 3, 1818) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1818. Description of several new species of the genus Esox, of North America. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 1, 413–417. (Read March 3, 1818) (BHL link)
  • Le Sueur, C. A. 1823. Descriptions of several new species of Ascidia. Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 3, 2–8. (Read March 25, 1822)

See also

References
  1. Leland, p. 53.
  2. Lesueur, peintre voyageur
  3. (Elliott & Johansen, p. 6)
  4. (Elliott & Johansen, p. 7).
  5. Elliott & Johansen, p. 7
  6. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2013. The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Exeter, England: Pelagic Publishing Ltd. xiii + 262 pp. ISBN 978-1-907807-41-1. ("Lesueur", p. 124).
  7. Beolens B, Watkins M, Grayson M. 2011. The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Lesueur", p. 156).
  8. Collins, A. G.; Jarms, G.; Morandini, A. C. (2019). World List of Scyphozoa. Phyllorhiza peronlesueuri Goy, 1990. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=287185 on 2019-04-16

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.
  • Waldo G. Leland, The Lesueur Collection of American Sketches in the Museum of Natural History at Havre, Seine-Inferieure, Journal of American History 10(1): 53–64, June 1923. Accessed at: https://doi.org/10.2307/1888689.
  • Cédric Crémière et Gabrielle Baglione, Lesueur, Peintre voyageur, Un trésor oublié, coll. Très Grande Bibliothèque Thalassa, Éditions de Conti, Paris, 2009 (ISBN 9782351030110)
  • Muséum d'Histoire naturelle du Havre, Lesueur, peintre voyageur http://www.museum-lehavre.fr/fr/collections/ca-lesueur/lesueur-peintre-voyageur
  • John R. Dolan, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur in Philadelphia: His remarkable contributions to natural history and scientific illustration. Arts and Scoences Vol 4 n3 (2020) http://www.openscience.fr/IMG/pdf/iste_artsci20v4n3_6.pdf
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