Boy of Cape Diemen. Man of Cape Diemen

Scarce c.19th engraving of two images on the one sheet, the one on the right a Tasmanian aboriginal man and the other of a boy. Historically important engraving of the Tasmanian aborigines depicted as noble savages. This concept was proposed by the Enlightenment philosopher Rousseau in his, Discourse on Inequality (1754) first published in, Jacques Julien Houton de Labillardiere (1755-1834), “Relation du voyage a la recherche de La Perouse”  Homme du Cap de Diemen.

This engraving is from the English edition where the image is in reverse and reduced in size.

From Labillardière, J., An Account of a Voyage in Search of La Pérouse, Undertaken by Order of the Constituent Assembly of France, and Performed in the Years 1791, 1792, and 1793, in the Recherche and Espérance, Ships of War, Under the Command of Rear-Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux