A unique map of South Africa produced 222 years ago for King Louis XVI, and never before exhibited, will form the centre-piece of the exhibition, The King’s Map, Francois le Vaillant in Southern Africa: 1781 -1784. The exhibition, on show at the Iziko South African Museum until 26 May 2013, forms part of the prestigious ‘French Season’ – the multifaceted bilateral collaboration between France and South Africa.
“When I eventually saw the map in the Map Archives of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, I hoped a South African public would one day share my pleasure in the most beautiful and striking map ever produced of Southern Africa. The map had never previously been exhibited and its custodian at the time seemed doubtful that it would ever be allowed to leave the library, given its value and fragile state”, explains Curator Prof Ian Glenn. “We owe an enormous debt to the French Cultural Services in South Africa for persuading the Bibliothèque Nationale to let the map return to be exhibited in the land that inspired it.”
The multi-media map – nearly 3 x 2 meters – painted on silk for King Louis XVI of France – is a record of biodiversity and animal distribution in South Africa, and shows the route Le Vaillant travelled. The mapcontains 66 illustrations of animals, birds, and plants. It also includes panels showing different indigenous tribes he encountered. The King’s Map is essentially a tourist map to South Africa!
Recognised as the first significant modern ornithologist, French traveller and social critic François le Vaillant spent the years 1781 to 1784 in southern Africa. “Iziko Museums has its own special connection to the life of Le Vaillant at the Cape. One of its museums, Rust en Vreugd, a splendid late 18th century townhouse in Buitenkant Street, Cape Town, once provided accommodation for Le Vaillant and it was here that for a time he catalogued his collections of natural history; and from here that he left on expeditions into the interior,” says Ms Rooksana Omar, Chief Executive Officer Iziko Museums of South Africa.
Le Vaillant created a window on southern Africa through his writings, watercolours and maps that vividly depict both nature and human interaction at that time. Notably, Le Vaillant was a free thinking all-rounder, whose keen interest in the world included not only nature and art, but the social conditions experienced by the local people he engaged with.
“As a part of the French-South African Season, this exhibition helps remind us of the long and complex relationship between our two countries. It demonstrates the important role that French Enlightenment thought and romantic ideas about “nature” played in shaping views about the new colony and the indigenous peoples who lived here. It also shows the important role that accounts of the Cape of Good Hope played in shaping European debates about nature and human nature, ” comments Curator Prof Ian Glenn.
Le Vaillant’s influence on the collection of natural history specimens, particularly as the first person to take a giraffe back to France, will be dramatised through some striking displays, including one of the world’s largest taxidermied giraffes.
The exhibition foregrounds Le Vaillant’s multi-dimensional legacy as explorer, naturalist and social critic. Other very rare and valuable works by Le Vaillant will be displayed including a major selection of watercolours held by the South African Parliament, original bird illustrations for Oiseaux d’Afrique and elephant folio versions of his bird books illustrated by Barraband from the Brenthurst Library.
The exhibition will also highlight the role of Le Vaillant and other early travellers as anthropological observers who were often champions of human rights and critics of colonial brutality. This exhibition helps demonstrate that this French traveller influenced how Europe viewed the new colony in southern Africa, and also how the Cape influenced French thinking.
This groundbreaking collaborative project links histories, art and nature. Showcasing rare historic artefacts, it reassesses Le Vaillant’s role as a critic of colonialism and a defender of human rights. The exhibition runs fromand
30 November 2012 until 26 May 2013 forms part of the prestigious ‘French Season’ – the multifaceted bilateral collaboration between France and South Africa.
Iziko South African Museum, 25 Queen Victoria Street Cape Town.
