Back to search results
Indigenous Australian man, Ourou-mare ('Bulldog'), 1802

Image Indigenous Australian man, Ourou-mare ('Bulldog'), 1802

TLF ID R4043

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit somewhere near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Ourou-mare, said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe, and known to the British settlers as 'Bulldog'. He has short, curly hair and a bare, unadorned chest. The print, measuring 31.5 cm x 24.0 cm, was published in France in 1824 as Plate no 23 in the second edition of 'Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes (Atlas)' or 'Voyage of discovery to the Austral Lands (Atlas)'.

View resource


Educational details

Educational value
  • This asset is a product of the 1800-04 French expedition to Australia led by Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) - the expedition set out aboard two ships in October 1800, the largest scientific team up to that time to leave Europe for the Pacific; Britain and France had been at war since 1793 and although British authorities were suspicious of French territorial intentions in Australia they guaranteed safe passage for the expedition, which contributed greatly to knowledge in Europe about Australia's Indigenous peoples, geography, and flora and fauna.
  • It provides evidence that the Baudin expedition focused on details of Indigenous individuals - the 'Age of Discovery' by European explorers sparked great interest in theories of human development and the original inhabitants of Australia and the South Pacific islands; several expeditioners, including Baudin, were members of the newly formed Société des Observateurs d'Homme (Society of the Observers of Man), and zoologist François Péron (1775-1810) represented the new science of social anthropology.
  • It is an example of the work of the artist Nicolas-Martin Petit (1777-1804), who had trained in the school of the leading French neoclassical painter Louis David (1748-1825) - although Petit and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) had both been hired as assistant gunners, they became the two official artists on the Baudin expedition; Petit concentrated mostly on portraits and landscapes, and Lesueur on zoological subjects.
  • It depicts one of the Indigenous people of the area whose lives underwent sudden, dramatic and irreversible changes after Port Jackson (Sydney) became the first permanent settlement in Australia - it is not known how many people, in a number of different clans, were living in the area when about 1,300 British people arrived in the First Fleet in 1788, but large numbers died in an epidemic (believed to be smallpox) in 1789.
  • It depicts Ourou-mare, also known to the British at Port Jackson as 'Bulldog' of the Gwea-gal tribe - Bulldog and another man known as Mosquito were arrested on 6 July 1805 for alleged involvement in a series of 'outrages' against settlers; they were reportedly handed over to the British authorities by other Indigenous people of the area and made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from prison at Parramatta before the Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King (1758-1808), banished them without trial to the tiny British settlement on Norfolk Island; Ourou-mare returned from Norfolk Island in 1813 but nothing further is known about his life.
  • It is an example of a print made from an image engraved into metal, printed in colour, then finished by hand with watercolour paint - this particular print was made in Paris in 1824 using a stipple engraving by Barthelemy Roger (1767-1841), and was produced for one of the illustrations in the second edition of the atlas of the published account of the Baudin expedition, 'Voyage de decouvertes aux Terres Australes' (published in 1824).
Topics Aboriginal peoples Medical equipment Engraving

Other details

Contributors
  • Author
  • Name: Arthus Bertrand\, Paris
  • Organization: Arthus Bertrand\, Paris
  • Description: Author
  • Person: Nicolas-Martin Petit
  • Description: Author
  • Person: Barthelemy Roger
  • Description: Author
  • Person: J Milbert
  • Description: Author
  • Contributor
  • Name: National Library of Australia
  • Organization: National Library of Australia
  • Description: Content provider
  • URL: http://www.nla.gov.au
  • Name: Arthus Bertrand\, Paris
  • Organization: Arthus Bertrand\, Paris
  • Description: Author
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Person: Nicolas-Martin Petit
  • Description: Author
  • Person: Barthelemy Roger
  • Description: Author
  • Person: J Milbert
  • Description: Author
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: National Library of Australia
  • Organization: National Library of Australia
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Colour independence
  • Device independence
  • Hearing independence
Learning Resource Type
  • Image
Rights
  • © Education Services Australia Ltd and National Library of Australia, 2013, except where indicated under Acknowledgements