Marie Firmin Bocourt

Life & Legacy

Marie Firmin Bocourt (19 April 1819 – 4 February 1904) was a French zoologist and artist.
As a young man, he worked as a preparateur for the zoologist Gabriel Bibron (1805–1848), later serving as a museum artist. In 1861, he was sent to Thailand (then called Siam), where he explored the fauna and brought back an important collection of specimens.
He collaborated with Auguste Duméril (1812–1870) on a series called Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale, a result of Bocourt's scientific expedition to Mexico and Central America in 1864–1866, in one part during the French Intervention in Mexico led by Napoleon III. Auguste Duméril died in 1870, and the project was continued by Bocourt with assistance from Léon Vaillant (1834–1914), François Mocquard (1834–1917) and Fernand Angel (1881–1950). With Vaillant, he published a study on fishes, "Études sur les poissons ", that was included in Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l'Amérique Centrale.
As an artist, he specialized in engravings, doing portraits of contemporary people as well as zoological illustrations.