Tableau des Decouvertes du Capne. Cook, & de la Pérouse [Tableau of the discoveries of Captain Cook and of La Perouse].

Jacques Grasset de Saint-Sauveur never visited the Pacific, instead basing his depictions on drawings and descriptions made by previous explorers and artists.

This engraving was born out of the consuming European desire to know the peoples ‘discovered’ in the Pacific. Saint-Saveur satisfied that need by creating a virtual microcosm of the region, with groupings of two to four people representing 24 cultures in all.

His depiction, however, is based less in reality than in an ideal. His subjects’ skin, hair, and features are conspicuously European, their clothes resemble classical Greek robes, and they hold unnatural poses. Saint-Sauveur has presented a vision of life in the Pacific as a colourful paradise.