Charles Alexandre Lesueur, artist and naturalist, was born on January 1, 1778, at Le Havre, France. Little is known of his childhood or education, including where he gained his training in art. Only the School of Hydrography at Le Havre, whose mission was training future naval cadets, listed classes in drawing during the period Lesueur lived there. However, it is not known if he ever attended this school.

In the summer of 1800 Napoleon ordered the organization of an expedition to Australia in order to expand France's influence by mapping the terrain and naming the places. Lesueur enlisted as assistant gunner, since all artists' jobs were taken. After many arduous months of sickness and deaths, most of the crew of sailors, scientists, and artists was gone, including the commander in chief. In spite of these harships, Lesueur and Nicholas Martin Petit (1777-1804) carried on with the artists' tasks, while Francois Péron (1775-1810) pursued the scientific and geographic observations. Upon returning to France in 1804, Péron and Lesueur brought back a collection of over 100,000 specimens of which 2,500 were new species. Lesueur and Péron were commissioned by Napoleon in 1807 to produce an account of the voyage, and published the first volume, containing forty-one plates of profiles of coasts and maps, scenes of the Australian areas, flora and fauna, and ethnographic subjects.

Many years following the expedition, Lesueur became acquainted with William Maclure (1763-1840), an eminent geologist and one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, while the latter was visiting Paris. Maclure was in search of a field naturalist and travelling companion on his geological tour of the West Indies and the United States. Lesueur agreed to accompany him for 2 years. The two left from Paris in August of 1815. After a visit to Stonehenge, they sailed to the West Indies, where Maclure engaged in geologcial studies, and Lesueur collected natural history specimens and produced over 100 sketches of West Indies' zoological and mineralogical subjects. In the spring of the following year, Maclure and Lesueur arrived in Philadelphia, only to embark on a five-month investigation of the northeastern United States and Great lakes region. Lesueur collected specimens, filling his sketchbooks. He had already found the study of ichthyology important, and these travels reinforced his intention to investigate and write about the fish of the U.S.

Upon returning to Philadelphia, Lesueur and Maclure wrote out the results of their travels, publishing many scientific papers in the Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, with Lesueur also published findings from his Australian expedition. Many of Lesueur's engravings fill the Journal, illustrating his own papers, as well as those of other scientists, such as Thomas Nuttall and Thomas Say. Most of the papers announce the discovery of new specimens, describing and illustrating fish or plant life for the first time. Lesueur made his engravings on copper, which he printed on his own press, supplied by Maclure. During this time of heavy publication, Lesueur became a curator for the Academy (1817) and remained so until 1825.

Lesueur continued to make expeditions through the U.S., participated in the idealistic community at New Harmony, Indiana, and finally returned to France in 1837. Upon returning to France, he devoted his time to scholarly activities at the Paris Museum, giving painting instruction, and mastering the technique of lithography. He was presented with the honor of Chevalier de l'Ordre Royal de la Légion d'Honneur as recognition of his years in service of science, and was named curator of the newly reestablished museum at Le Havre in March of 1846. He died on December 12, 1846, and is buried at Le Havre.