Biografie von Jacques LE MOYNE DE MORGUES (c.1533-1588)

Birth place: Dieppe, France

Death place: London, England

Profession: Watercolorist

Work: NYPL; Victoria & Albert Mus., London (portfolio of botanical illustr.)

Comments: He is the first known explorer-artist to visit what is now the continental U.S., as part of Laudonnière's expedition to Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas in 1564. He was also one of the few survivors of Fort Caroline, the Huguenot settlement established by Jan Ribault on the St. Johns River (Florida) and destroyed by the Spanish in 1565. Le Moyne managed to escape, eventually settling permanently in London and producing a number of watercolors of English flora and fauna. His forty watercolor sketches of his American expedition (depicting Indian life and the local vegetation), along with his narrative of the trip, were acquired by Theodore de Bry in 1588 (after Le Moyne's death) and engraved and published in 1591 at Frankfort-am-Main. Of the original watercolors, only one has been located, a gouache depicting a meeting of Laudonnière with the Indian chief Athore ("The Natives of Florida Worship the Column Erected by the Commander on His First Voyage," NYPL).

Sources: G&W; Thieme-Becker; American Processional, 23-24; Lorant, The New World, repro.; Narrative of Le Moyne, An Artist Who Accompanied the French Expedition to Florida under Laudonnière, Boston, 1875. More recently, see Gerdts, Art Across America, vol. 2: 73-74; Baigell, Dictionary;Trustees of the British Museum, The Work of Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, A Huguenot Artist in France, Florida, and England, 2 vols. (London: British Museum), 1977.