• Title : Inauguration du Monument
• Size:  19 1/2in x 13 1/2in (495mm x 345mm)
• Condition: (B) Good Condition
• Date : 1836
• Ref #:  31734-1

Description:
This large original antique lithograph print of Dumont D Urville Inauguration of a monument to Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse on the island of Vanikoro, part of the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific (the last resting place of La Perouse & his crew), by Louis Auguste de Sainson, the artist on the Astrolabe, during the first of Dumont D Urvilles first voyage to the South Seas between 1826 - 1829, was engraved by Antoine Maurin 1793 - 1860 and published in the 1836 1st edition of Dumont d Urvilles Voyage de la corvette L Astrolabe: exécuté par ordre du roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829......

Louis Auguste de Sainson, (1800-1848). Sainson was a French draftsman & artist who specialized in natural history and geography. He accompanied the expedition of the corvette L Astrolabe as a naturalist directed by Jules Dumont d\\\'Urville between 1826-1829.
He began his naval career in a secretarial position at the French Atlantic port of Rochefort, working there from 1825 till 1826. He then volunteered to join the Astrolabe as a draughtsman, after being recommended to the expedition by Quoy, one of the naturalists on the expedition, joining the ship at Toulon on 7 February 1826.
He was responsible for the bulk of the drawings produced during the expedition, with over 500 in three years. Many of his drawings paintings and prints now reside in Australian, New Zealand & French museums.

General Definitions:
Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy and stable
Paper color : - off white
Age of map color: -
Colors used: -
General color appearance: -
Paper size: - 19 1/2in x 13 1/2in (495mm x 345mm)
Plate size: - 19 1/2in x 13 1/2in (495mm x 345mm)
Margins: - Min 1/2in (12mm)

Imperfections:
Margins: - Re-join to bottom margin
Plate area: - 9in & 2in re-join to bottom to centre of image
Verso: - Repair as noted, light spotting

Background: 
Jean François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse (1741 – 1788) was a French Naval officer and explorer whose expedition vanished in Oceania.
Lapérouse was appointed in 1785 by Louis XVI and by the Secretary of State of the Navy, the Marquis de Castries, to lead an expedition around the world. Many countries were initiating voyages of scientific explorations at that time.
The expeditions aims were to complete the Pacific discoveries of James Cook (whom Lapérouse greatly admired), correct and complete maps of the area, establish trade contacts, open new maritime routes and enrich French science and scientific collections. His ships were LAstrolabe (under Fleuriot de Langle) and La Boussole, both 500 tons. They were storeships reclassified as frigates for the occasion. Their objectives were geographic, scientific, ethnological, economic (looking for opportunities for whaling or fur trading), and political (the eventual establishment of French bases or colonial cooperation with their Spanish allies in the Philippines). They were to explore both the north and south Pacific, including the coasts of the Far East and of Australia, and send back reports through existing European outposts in the Pacific.
La Perouse visited Australia, arriving off Botany Bay on 24 January 1788. There Lapérouse encountered a British convoy (known later as the First Fleet) led by Captain Arthur Phillip RN, who was to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. While it had been intended that the colony would be located at Botany Bay, Phillip had quickly decided that the site was unsuitable and the colony would instead be established at Sydney Cove in Port Jackson. High winds – which had hindered Lapérouses ships in entering Botany Bay – delayed the relocation until 26 January (later commemorated as Australia Day).
The French were received courteously and spent six weeks at the British colony (their last recorded landfall). While Lapérouse and Phillip did not meet, French and British officers visited each other formally on at least 11 occasions, and offered each other assistance and supplies. During their stay, the French established an observatory and a garden, held masses, and made geological observations. Lapérouse also took the opportunity to send journals, charts and letters back to Europe, with the British merchant ship Alexander. The chaplain from L Astrolabe, Father Louis Receveur, never recovered from injuries he had sustained in a clash with indigenous people in the Samoan Islands and died at Botany Bay on 17 February; Receveur was buried on shore at Frenchmans Cove.
On 10 March, after taking on sufficient wood and fresh water, the French expedition left New South Wales – bound for New Caledonia, Santa Cruz, the Solomons, the Louisiades, and the western and southern coasts of Australia. While Lapérouse had reported in a letter from Port Jackson that he expected to be back in France by June 1789, neither he nor any members of his expedition were seen again by Europeans.