• Title
  Louis XVI giving final instructions to the Comte de la Perouse, 1785, / painted by Edouard Nuel
• Creator
  Edouard Nuel
• Call number
  ML 39
  Status: On display - Map Rooms
  
• Level of description
  fonds
• Date
  
  1911 copy of an 1817 original
• Type of material
  Graphic Materials, Paintings
• Reference code
  201969
• Issue Copy
  Digitised
• Physical Description
  1 oil painting - gilt frame - Approximately 175 x 238 cm.; framed 218 x 274 cm.
  
• ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
  
  After returning from his appointment as NSW Commissioner for the 1908 Franco–British Exhibition in London, Sir Joseph Carruthers, suggested at a meeting of the Art Gallery of New South Wale’s board in September 1908 from his position as Trustee that ‘NSW should request a loan of the famous La Pérouse picture’, painted by Nicolas-Andre Monsiau in 1817, and held in the Royal Palace at Versailles, France.
  A request was made to the French consul in Sydney via the Premier’s office. Gallery minutes from May 1910 record that the French Government would not lend the painting and normally did not permit copies to be made, but were ‘in this special case, prepared to have a reproduction made by a competent artist’.
  The Gallery’s London agent, F Graham Lloyd, was asked to broker an agreement with the French Government. Lloyd met their Consul-General in London in October and was told it could take over a year before the copy could be started as it would need to go through the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Finance and Beaux-Arts. Since the French government would appoint Edouard Nuel to paint the copy, the Consul-General advised Lloyd to approach Nuel directly to save time. Lloyd did and agreed a price of £25. In February 1911, Nuel reported that the painting was nearing completion. Lloyd arranged for noted Parisian art critic Marius Vachon to inspect the work. ‘I certify that the copy is a faithful reproduction of the original,’ Vachon reported, ‘… with all its qualities and also with all its faults.’ By the time the Art Gallery received the painting, in July 1911, it had started to redefine the scope of its collection and move works considered to have more historical interest than artistic merit to other institutions in Sydney. In June 1912, the Trustees decided to transfer the painting to the Mitchell Library.
  
  Reference:
  Stewart Reed
  SL Magazine, Autumn 2013
• Copying Conditions
  Out of copyright:
  Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
• General note
  
  Titled on plaque attached to frame
  This is a copy of the original painting done in oil by Nicolas-Andre Monsiau, held in the Royal Palace at Versailles, France
  Transferred from the Art Gallery of New South Wales
  An engraving by Pigeot from Mansiau's original, titled "Louis XV1 donne des instructions a Mr de la Perouse pour son voyage autour du monde Juillet 1785" is held in the Mitchell Library (P2/P)
  Digital order no:a128478
• Signatures / Inscriptions
  
  "Apres Monsiau, Edouard Nuel" -- signed at lower left
• Date note
  
  Dated by Stewart Reed, 2013
• Creator/Author/Artist
  Monsiaux, Nicolas Andre, 1754-1837
  
• Name
  La Perouse, Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de, 1741-1788
  Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793
  
• Topic
  explorers
  flags
  globes
  maps
  royal family (France)
  
• Exhibited in
  
  Possessed : an exhibition of treasures - State Library of New South Wales (4 March - 29 June, 1997)

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