Spirits of the Flowers Keep Watch: My Jeanne Baret Dubernat
Floral Interpretation of
The Dodo
Roelandt Savery (attributed to)
1626
oil on canvas
32.28 x 40.16 in.
Natural History Museum. London, England
[Jeanne Baret Dubernat footnotes:]
The Dodo, made famous by Lewis Carroll's fictional variety, once roamed freely on the island of Mauritius. But after the arrival of colonists and their diseases, pets, and rodents, dodos were wiped out. Today the dodo is used by conservation groups throughout the world as a symbol for the need to protect endangered species of the world.
On November 7, 1768, after over twenty-two months at sea, JB arrived in Mauritius; She would spend the next six years on the island. On May 17 1774 she married. (I will now call her by her married name, Jeanne Baret Dubernat, and or initials, JBD.) In late 1774, Jeanne and her husband Jean Dubernat returned to France.
Today scientists are trying to re-extinct the dodo as I try to re-introduce JBD.