Giclee reprint of an original lithograph from Dumont d’Urville’s Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée published between 1842 and 1854 in Paris.

The work is one of the grandest and most historically significant scientific "Great Voyages" ever commissioned by the French crown. Undertaken between 1837 and 1840 under the command of the legendary explorer Captain Jules Dumont d'Urville and his second-in-command Charles Hector Jacquinot, this royal expedition sought to chart the uncharted antarctic polar circles and study the diverse cultures and ecosystems of Oceania.

Upon the ships' successful return to France, the government funded an exhaustive publishing project handled by the Parisian firm Gide. Spanning 13 years, the final work comprised 23 volumes of text and 7 massive, folio-sized visual atlases.

The rock shag (Leucocarbo magellanicus), also known as the Magellanic cormorant, is a marine cormorant found around the southernmost coasts of South America. Its breeding range is from around Valdivia, Chile, south to Cape Horn and Tierra del Fuego, and north to Punta Tombo in Argentina. In winter it is seen further north, with individuals reaching as far as Santiago, Chile on the west coast and Uruguay on the east. The birds also breed around the coasts of the Falkland Islands.