The Zélée Tacking, Circa 1820

An on-the-spot sheet, this drawing captures the gabare La Zélée at the moment of coming about with rare operational exactitude. Heir to the shipboard tradition in which truthfulness prevails, it stands at the intersection of late Neoclassicism (measure, a stable horizon) and emerging Romanticism (the energy of motion), in dialogue with Vernet, Garneray, Crépin, and Gudin, while aligning with the technical current of Ozanne and François-Edmond Pâris. Its sequential composition, breaking down the maneuver like a diagram, offers a professional eye on rigging, hull, and sail trim—without superfluous picturesque effect.
Historically, La Zélée (Écurie-class, launched 1812) would play a major role in the Antarctic campaign (1837–1840) conducted with L’Astrolabe under Dumont d’Urville and Jacquinot. Yet before Louis Le Breton’s lithographs, visual records of the vessel are virtually nonexistent: this sheet therefore constitutes a unique witness, earlier than or parallel to the canonical corpus.
Both a working study and a primary source, it fills a documentary gap and lends itself ideally to “Art & Science” or “Exploration” displays. Through its economy of means and rigor, it epitomizes the early nineteenth-century convergence of the Navy’s visual culture and scientific ambition—a document of exceptional rarity

A detailed note is available on request.