Frame of a Canoe Found at Port des Francais. (Alaska)

Artist:

Lieutenant Michel Francois Blondela (1741-1788) 

Blondela entered the French military as a volunteer in 1777 and continued his naval service on the east coast of the United States, in the West Indies and back in France before joining the La Pérouse expedition. While not officially assigned as artist to the expedition, Blondela’s talents were a great asset to the voyage’s visual record. La Pérouse commented on Blondela in his journal, “he applies himself with a degree of assiduity, and executes with an intelligence, order and neatness, that are deserving of the highest encomiums”