Lacs, fleuves, rivières et principales montagnes de l’Asie
1787
Original hand-coloured copper engraving on paper
Print size: 12.5 x 21.75 in (32 x 55 cm)
Sheet size: 16 x 22.75 in (40.5 x 58 cm)
Folded size: 15.94 x 12.20 in (40.5 x 31 cm)
A rare late-eighteenth-century physical map of Asia by Jean-Baptiste Louis Clouet, centred on the Gulf of Bengal and distinguished by its elegant depiction of the continent’s river systems, mountain chains and seas, framed by extensive explanatory text panels
This finely engraved copperplate map, with original hand-colouring, was published in Paris in 1787 as part of Clouet’s Géographie Moderne, issued by Mondhare et Jean. The sheet presents a broad continental view of Asia, extending from the Mediterranean fringe and Russia in the west to the Philippines and the Pacific in the east, and from the Arctic regions down to the Indonesian archipelago. Rather than emphasising political boundaries, Clouet organises the composition around the “lacs, fleuves, rivières et principales montagnes” – the lakes, rivers and major mountain ranges that define Asia’s physical structure.
The Golfe de Bengal is placed near the visual centre of the map and functions as a natural pivot: the Ganges and Brahmaputra systems, the river networks of Burma, Siam and China, and the surrounding uplands all converge towards this eastern Indian basin. Major ranges such as the Himalayas, the Tibetan plateau margins and the Central Asian chains are engraved with clear hachuring, while significant seas and gulfs – including the Bay of Bengal, the Gulf of Bengal, the Arabian Sea and the Philippine Sea – are carefully labelled to anchor the viewer’s sense of orientation.
On either side of the map, two vertical panels of French text provide a running commentary on the geography of Asia, summarising the principal physical features, regional divisions and key hydrological systems. This integration of cartographic image and explanatory prose is characteristic of Clouet’s pedagogical approach and reflects the didactic ambitions of the Géographie Moderne.
Clouet’s Lacs, fleuves, rivières et principales montagnes de l’Asie is an exemplary statement of Enlightenment physical geography. Moving away from the heavily decorative, politically focused maps of the earlier eighteenth century, it offers a cool, systematic reading of the continent, structured around what were understood as its most fundamental natural elements: watercourses, relief and coastline.
The decision to centre the composition on the Gulf of Bengal and its associated river basins is especially significant in the context of this auction. It visually asserts Eastern India’s position as a continental hinge – the point at which the Himalayan waters descend to the sea, where the Indo-Gangetic plains meet the maritime routes of the Indian Ocean, and where the networks that link India, Burma and Southeast Asia come together. In Clouet’s scheme, Bengal and the Bay are not peripheral but central to Asia’s physical logic.
Unlike many contemporary general maps of Asia that foreground territorial claims or colonial rivalries, this plate emphasises continuity rather than fragmentation. The long, sinuous rivers, from Siberia to India, are drawn as structural lines that cut across political borders; mountain chains are used to articulate regional identities before any state is named. In doing so, Clouet anticipates later nineteenth-century attempts to read history and commerce through the lens of physical geography.
Jean-Baptiste Louis Clouet occupied an important position within the French cartographic world of his day. As Royal Geographer to the Académie des Sciences de Rouen, with offices in both Paris and Cadiz, he produced a substantial body of work, including the Géographie Moderne (issued in multiple editions between 1776 and 1793) and a celebrated series of large decorative wall maps of the continents. His Asia plates, such as the present one, were intended both for reference and for display – objects that could be read, studied and hung in the salons and libraries of late-eighteenth-century France and Spain.
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