Detailed portrait of Naba-Léba, wearing an elaborate headdress and striped robe. One of the kings of Solor Island, in the present-day Sunda Islands of Indonesia.
The engraving is based on drawings made by Nicolas-Martin Petit, artist on Nicolas Baudin’s expedition during their visit to Timor Indonesia. Having participated in two scientific expeditions during the 1790s, Baudin was commissioned by the French government in 1800 to survey the Australian coast
Kupang Timor was an important trading port and was used as a resupply point for many other important voyages in the region. The ships first arrived in Kupang, Timor in 1801 and then ventured south to complete the survey of Australia's southern coast where Baudin crossed paths with Matthew Flinders, who was undertaking his own survey of the coast. After making their way to Sydney, the Naturaliste returned to France and Baudin acquired a new ship, the Casuarina, of which Freycinet was made commander. Baudin then returned to Timor, arriving there in 1803. The expedition, in the first complete map of the Australian coast and several of the most detailed and fine engravings of Australian wildlife and landscapes.
Full title: Timor : Naba LeBa Roi De L'ile Solor
The voyage, endorsed by Napoleon, was also tasked with studying natural history and making detailed scientific observations of Indigenous people. Consequently, Baudin’s vessels, Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste, were lavishly equipped, with twenty-two scientists among the expedition’s company. Petit and another artist, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, embarked as gunner’s mates, but were elevated to official artist roles when the men initially appointed to those posts quit six months into the expedition. Lesueur focussed on the recording of landscape and species, while the depiction of the people fell largely to Petit, a Paris-born draughtsman who’d had some training in the studio of Jacques-Louis David. After surveying the western and southern coats of the continent throughout the latter half of 1801, in early 1802 Baudin’s ships called at the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, Bruny Island and Maria Island in Tasmania, where Petit made several portraits which have subsequently come to be considered important records of Indigenous life in the period prior to permanent European colonisation. From June to November 1802, the expedition was delayed in Sydney while the two vessels were repaired, providing the opportunity for Petit to complete portraits of people of the Cadigal, Dharawal, Gweagal, Kurringai and Darug language groups of the Sydney region.
An interesting documentary about Baudin’s expedition can be found on youtube in the following link VIEW DOCUMENTARY
