Young Turtle

Description

The inscription at the bottom of this study indicates it was done at New Harmony on February 9. It has been attributed to Bodmer, although from all accounts he was at Natchez until February 6 and could not have been back in New Harmony three days later. More probably it is an illustration by Charles-Alexandre Lesueur, New Harmony's resident naturalist-artist, who may have given Prince Maximilian this drawing as an identification aid. In his journal entry for February 10, Maximilian mentions his having reviewed a list of turtle species in North America and compared it with collected specimens. Approximately fifty watercolors and drawings of American turtles by Lesueur are preserved today at the Museum of Natural History in Le Havre, France.