Small suite of work relating to the title-page vignette from the 'atlas historique' accompanying the Freycinet official account

Group of two small drawings and two printer's proofs, full details below. A revealing group of working papers and designs relating to the creation of the remarkable vignette that adorns the title-page of the historical atlas for Freycinet's official account. The group includes an original sketch and two working pulls relating to the vignette as ultimately printed on the title-page of the Atlas historique (1825). The beautifully developed scene shows a woman next to a broken anchor and shaded by a willow, next to a marble plinth with a quotation from Esmenard's poem La Navigation, originally composed for the loss of La Pérouse, and much admired by his contemporaries: Venez, amis des arts, que le marbre fidèle Gage de nos regrets dans ces paisibles lieux Rappelle La Pérouse et le rende à nos yeux, Oui sous les coups du sort, quand pour nous il succombe, De larmes et de fleurs je couvrirai sa tombe. In the background of the scene a vessel heels over to starboard, its rigging wrecked, and clearly sinking. The scene is no doubt meant to bring to mind the loss of Freycinet's ship Uranie in the Falklands, but also makes an obvious link with La Pérouse himself, the fate of whom, at the time of publication, was still unknown in France. Published at a happier time in Freycinet's sometimes troubled life - he had not long finished the wonderful second edition of his Baudin voyage account (1824) and work was progressing nicely on his own books - such a sentimental design hints at his pensive and thoughtful nature. It is the more surprising because the collection of views by Arago, Taunay and Pellion are some of the brightest and most engaging of any voyage art. The four items are: 1. Fragment of tracing paper showing the anchor design, 50 x 115 mm., tipped onto paper; 2. Pencil and ink sketch of the main components of the design, 205 x 215 mm., on Whatman paper dated 1821; 3. Proof before letters (in the technical sense, but also before adding the inscription to the plinth as well as other graphic detail) on laid paper, 200 x 235 mm; 4. Finished proof printed on india paper and laid on slightly larger laid sheet, 230 x 260 mm. The detailed care in the preparation of this group, which came to light in the dispersal of Freycinet family archives in the 1970s, underscores the attention and oversight that preoccupied Freycinet in his preparation of the official accounts of two grands voyages, both that of Baudin and here his own. .…