Important original drawings from a French expedition to South America and Oceania (Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Tahiti, Honolulu, Kamchatka, Mexico, etc.) by Kerret, taken whilst acting as draughtsman of the Frigate La Forte, comprised of 62 full-page drawings, a third coloured or heightened in white, portraying a variety of subjects, but mostly city and village views, market scenes, streets and tradesmen, important squares, etc., overall, a rich iconographic record of an important expedition.
Kerret (1833-1898) sailed from Brest on 2 December 1852 as an official artist for the French Pacific squadron. When the Crimean War broke out, this squadron, then in Callao, was joined by a British fleet sent to neutralise the Russian navy in the northern Pacific Ocean. Together they sailed to the Marquesas, Honolulu and the Sandwich Islands before making a failed attempt to land at Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula.
While in South America before the Anglo-French fleet sailed, however, Kerret also accompanied his cousin, Henri de Kersaint, on a diplomatic mission to Quito. They trekked from Guayaquil, across the Andes to their destination, Kerret including numerous views of the spectacular Ecuadorian scenery in this illustrated record of his travels during these years. Following his return to France in 1855, Kerret retired from naval service and his illustrations of the voyage were published at the time.
History of the drawings:
There is another set of drawings at the Quillien family archive (now part of the Archives Finistere), digitised.
These are different from the ones we offer in that they are a smaller collection and considerably less polished and finished whereas ours appears to be a more substantial illustrated record of the entire voyage perhaps prepared for publication. The detail in ours is much greater and has a greater emphasis on the depicting of the customs of the indigenous and colonial populations Kerret observed en route. In terms of technique, those from the Quillien archive are not as finished and may have been preparatory sketches or rough drawings made on the spot. The subjects of the two sketchbooks, however, do not coincide. None of the 14 sketches in the Quillien archive notebook match any of those in ours. The family archive, the Fonds des Manoir de Quillien, were transferred, via the Archives Départmentales, to the Archives Finistere sometime between 2008 and 2013.
The set at the Quillien archive are presumably the drawings the artist kept for himself, and this set, which is more finished, was presumably sent for revision or with the aim of being published or engraved, which never happened. These drawings are to date unpublished and unknown.
After his return to France, Kerret wrote a journal of the expedition also using his illustrations. This was not published at the time, and it remained on the family estate. It came to light when the Comtesse de Bourbon-Moustier, Marie-Henriette-Blanche de Bourbon (Kerret was her grandfather), brought it to the attention of the Ecuadorian historian, A. Darío Lara, who then published an extract of it in his Viajeros franceses al Ecuador en el siglo XIX (1972). The journal has since then been published in full as Journal de Mes Voyages Autour du Monde (de 1852 a 1855) (2004, edited Tugdual de Kerros). This is heavily illustrated with Kerrets drawings, though these seem to be different versions of the ones in this album, for example, the front cover is plate 47 in our album but have variations.
With the autograph owner's inscription of De Kerret on the inside of the front board. The boards are somewhat rubbed, some occasional surface dirt, somewhat browned, and the edges occasionally slightly dust stained. Otherwise in excellent condition. Cf. for other drawings at the Quillien family archives, part of the Archives Finistere): https://archives.finistere.fr/espace-de-recherche-dans-les-archives-privees/les-categories/arts/les-dessins-de-jean-rene-maurice.