Ourou Mare. A young warrior of the Gwea Gal tribe

Nicholas-Martin Petit was the French artist aboard Baudin’s famous voyage of exploration and discovery of 1802-1803, which visited Sydney in 1803.

Petit and the Baudin voyage artists evidently spent a great deal of time with the aborigines when they stayed in Port Jackson in June 1802, and their resulting sketches and portraits form one of the most significant documentary sources for the Sydney tribes. Baudin died on the return voyage to France in 1803 and in 1806 Emperor Napoleon himself gave permission for Lesueur and Péron to publish their findings in a Journal to be called ‘Voyage de découvertes aux Terres Australes (Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands)’, written by Péron and illustrated with forty plates by Lesueur.

Peron prepared the journals of maps and historical views for publication. It was one of the finest publications ever issued on early Australia.