French painter Gaspard Duche de Vancy is noted for his images of the voyage of exploration of Jean-Francois Galaup de La Perouse in the late 18th century. After studying art in Vienna, Duche de Vancy exhibited in Paris and at the Royal Academy in London. He went on to complete portraits of European royalty and architectural views of Naples and Rome.

Duche de Vancy was a young and well-trained artist living in London when he was chosen as 'draughtsman of landscapes and figures' for La Perouse's ill-fated voyage. The expedition first met disaster in 1786 with the death of twenty-one men in the tide rips of Alaska's Lituya Bay. Samoan Natives on the return trip killed ten more crew members in 1787, and finally the entire crew, including...