Freminville original watercolors of three fish

FREMINVILLE, Christophe Paulin de la Doix De (FRENCH, 1787-1848).
Group of 3 Framed Fish
(1. Pleurometre reduite de 3/4 de la baie de Bresil;
2. 62 Voyage de Venus Isles Gallapagos;
3. 92. Le Surmulet mullus surmulus France
Watercolor on paper
8 3/4 x 11 1/2" sheet, 18 3/4" x 21 1/8" framed.

" La mer était grosse. Ses longues volutes venaient se briser, avec fracas, sur la grève, quelles couvraient décume. Des oiseaux de mer, jetant leurs cris rauques, passaient dans le vent qui sifflait tristement. La scène avait un air grave et mélancolique. Nous demeurâmes, quelques instants, à la contempler, en silence. Jéprouvais une nostalgie irraisonnée."

"The sea was big. Her long volutes came crashing down on the beach, and they were covered with foam. Seabirds, casting off their screeches, passed in the wind, whistling sadly. The scene looked grave and melancholy. We remained for a few moments, watching her, in silence. I felt an irrational nostalgia."

Like his contemporary John James Audubon, the Chevalier Freminville had an adventuresome and productive life. Freminville was the son of a naval architect. He chose a naval career after hearing a lecture on Captain Cook's voyages. At the age of 15, Freminville joined the navy and traveled to Haiti under General LeClerc. While there he discovered the great ray, native to the bay of Port-au-Prince, which came to bear his name.

By the time he retired in the 1830's, Freminville had spent most of his life at sea, traveling from Iceland and Russia to Central and South America to West Africa and the Antilles, and drawing specimens of exotic species. He enjoyed much fame in his own day as an antiquary and writer of travel accounts, but he died having produced only one book on natural history subjects, Considerations Generales sur les Moeurs et les Habitudes des Serpens (1842). The drawings that Freminville left behind were intended for a half-dozen other related works on butterflies, fish, mollusks, snakes, and other reptiles, but these books remained unrealized.