Nicholas-Martin Petit (1777 - 1804)

French artist on the famous Baudin voyage of exploration and discovery. He had signed on to the voyage as a gunner’s mate but was appointed as an artist, after the three appointed artists left the expedition at Mauritius.Petit had studied in David’ studio at the Louvre and was to concentrate, ‘all that which may be of interest for the history of man’. The results of his observations and drawings are series of ‘impressive portraits of Tasmanian Aborigines’ in the official published accounts of the voyage.

This voyage charted the Australian coast and visited Sydney in 1803.