Some people get a lucky break. When Nicholas Baudin's expedition, commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte to map the coast of Australia, set sail in 1801, Charles-Alexander Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit were signed on as gunners. The two-ship expedition already had a full complement of three artists.
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But, said National Museum of Australia curator Cheryl Crilly, after the three artists deserted six months into the arduous voyage, Lesueur and Petit were promoted to become the official artists of the expedition. Lesueur painted Australian fauna, working with naturalist and zoologist Francois Peron, and Petit focused his attention on depicting the Indigenous people of different regions.
Although Baudin did not survive the three and a half year expedition - he died from tuberculosis - it was a scientific success, returning to France with more than 100,000 specimens and having discovered more than 2500 new species.
"They discovered 18 new species of jellyfish," Ms Crilly said.
Lesueur's depictions of them on paper and vellum, she said, were "almost ethereal".
The Art of Science: Baudin's Voyagers 1800-1804, an exhibition resulting from an international partnership between the Natural History Museum, Le Havre, France and six Australian museums - including two in Tasmania, one in Sydney, one in NSW, one in Western Australia - opened on Thursday at the National Museum of Australia. It was officially opened by the head of culture, education, science and technology at the Embassy of France in Australia, Bertrand Pous.
Mr Pous said the exhibition was proposed about four years ago by the director of the National Museum of History of Le Havre, Cedric Cremiere and the then mayor of Le Havre, Edouard Philippe (now the prime minister of France) came to Canberra to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Museum of Australia.
Mr Pous said the expedition was particularly interesting because it marked the first step in bilateral relations between Australia and France.
The exhibition includes some of the results of Lesueur and Petit's labours along with historical objects from various French and Australian institutions to complement the paintings including Baudin's personal journal.
Ms Crilly, who curated the exhibition for the National Museum, said it involved "a bit of argy-bargy" among the six Australian museums in deciding who would get to exhibit what from the 400 paintings that came to Australia.
The state museums tended to focus on material that depicted what was in their region, she said, while the National Museum of Australia decided to adopt an "overview" approach.
"There were some highlights we all wanted but in the end we collaborated with each other's expertise."
The Art of Science: Baudin's Voyagers 1800-1804 is on at the National Museum of Australia until June 24, 2018. Admission is free. nma.gov.au.
