"This book has been published to coincide with the touring exhibition The Art of Science: Baudin's Voyagers 1800-1804, which showcases more than 350 works from the Lesueur Collection held by the Museum of Natural History in Le Havre, Normandy, France." --Back cover.

Includes bibliographical references (170-172) and index.

Foreword / Ambassador of France to Australia -- Foreword / Mayor of Le Havre -- The Baudin Expedition Timeline -- Word and image; reconstructing the Baudin expedition / Gabrielle Baglione and Cédric Crémiére -- The Baudin expedition; glory, disgrace and redemption / Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby -- Napolean's France; Ambition, frontiers, claims / Michelle Hetherington -- First encounters / Nicolas Bigourdan -- Friend or foe? The French in Port Jackson / Nigel Erskine -- Unlocking mysteries; Charting and naming the Australian coasts / Jean Fornasiero, Lindl Lauton and John West-Sooby -- Tasmanian fauna; A zoological legacy / Kathryn Medlock, Simon Grove and Catherine Byrne -- Reading the work of Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit / Sasha Grishin -- The art of cultural exchange; From Le Havre to Lutruwita / Zoe Rimmer.

At the dawn of the 19th century, French navigator Nicolas Baudin led two lavishly equipped ships on a three-and-a-half-year voyage to the 'Southern Lands'. Inspired by the Enlightenment's hunger for knowledge, Baudin's expedition collected well in excess of 100,000 specimens, produced more than 1500 drawings and published the first complete chart of Australia. Baudin's artists, Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit, painted a series of remarkable portraits of Aboriginal people and produced some of the earliest European views of Australian fauna. These exquisite artworks reveal the sense of wonder this strange new world inspired.