An excellent early view of Government House and its gardens, based on an original drawing by Viscount de la Touanne, a French aristocrat attached to Bougainville's expedition which visited Sydney in 1825 in the Thetis and Esperance. As Dyer notes (The French Explorers and Sydney, Brisbane, 2009, p.107), this second visit by Bougainville to the colony was one of great happiness; there were many invitations issued and Touanne would often accompany Bougainville to dinners and visits to country homes. When time permitted Bougainville, as probably his countrymen also did, would walk in the gardens of Government house and along Mrs Macquarie's Road. The French officer accompanying an elegantly dressed Sydney lady in the foreground of the image is echoed by a family group of kangaroos on the lawns.

An excellent early view of Government House and its gardens, based on an original drawing by Viscount de la Touanne, a French aristocrat attached to Bougainville's expedition which visited Sydney in 1825 in the Thetis and Esperance. As Dyer notes (The French Explorers and Sydney, Brisbane, 2009, p.107), this second visit by Bougainville to the colony was one of great happiness; there were many invitations issued and Touanne would often accompany Bougainville to dinners and visits to country homes. When time permitted Bougainville, as probably his countrymen also did, would walk in the gardens of Government house and along Mrs Macquarie's Road. The French officer accompanying an elegantly dressed Sydney lady in the foreground of the image is echoed by a family group of kangaroos on the lawns.

This lithograph appeared in de la Touanne's Journal de la navigation autour du globe de la fregate la Thetis et de la Corvette l'Esperance (Paris, Bulla, 1837).