Jules Achille Michel.

Original photo, retouched with ink, diam. 49 x 41 cm.

Framed (not studied outside frame).

Michel (1821-1911), born in Givet, inherited his uncles talent as artist painter but went for a career in the navy. On 23 February 1861 Michel and the engineer Eloin Félix left Brussels to attempt, in the personal name of Leopold I and at his expense, without the slightest intervention from the Government, the colonization of the Hebrides, Solomon Islands and Fiji, close to Australia. They returned home in March 1862, disappointed, like the King and the Duke of Brabant. The instructions they received from Leopold I appeared, in extenso, in the "Revue Belge des Livres, Documents et Archives de la Guerre 194-1918", 9th series; N. 2 of 1933. pp. 209 to 218. The history of this mission of confidence appeared in the "Bulletin des Séances de l'Institut Royal Colonial Belge", volume XIX (1948), I, pp. 138 to 159.