Saint Denis (Réunion) – Victor Adam after Pierre de Sainson, 1833

“Vue de Saint Denis”, lithograph by Victor Adam after a drawing by Pierre de Sainson, made for Jules Dumont d’Urville’s “Voyage of the Corvette l’Astrolabe 1826–29,” published in 1833 by Louise-Auguste de Tastu. With original hand colouring. Size (image): 19 × 37 cm.

The French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville (1790–1842) undertook three voyages around the world, during which he explored the southern and western Pacific, Australia, and Antarctica. In November 1828 he called at the island of Réunion.

Réunion (then still known as Île Bourbon) was, until the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, an important stopover on the route to India and the East Indies. Its economy was based primarily on sugar, with coffee and cloves as secondary products. The plantations were mainly situated along the coast and on the more accessible slopes; the interior was largely unexplored and difficult to reach.

Saint-Denis had been the capital of the island since the eighteenth century, but suffered from a major maritime drawback: it lacked a proper harbour. The “harbour” of Saint-Denis was in fact an open roadstead, without any natural shelter. Ships anchored offshore and were fully exposed to the swell of the Indian Ocean. Loading and unloading took place by means of small boats and canoes, depending on wind and sea conditions. This is precisely the situation that Dumont d’Urville chose to have recorded in this view.

Price: Euro 250,-