[Greece - Turkey]. - Lot 2

[Greece - Turkey]. DUPRÉ (Louis). Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, or collection of Greek and Ottoman portraits, views and costumes. Paris, Dondey-Dupré, 1825-[1839]. Large folio. [3] ff. (faux-titre, title, dedication), 52 pp. 41 plates. Elegant modern red half-chagrin with corners, spine ribbed, gilt author and title, gilt triple-boxes, marbled paper boards. Unique edition published in 10 issues from 1825. Spectacular work of 52 lithographs depicting portraits of Greeks and Turks at the very beginning of the 19th century, dressed in costumes and superbly staged in landscapes or ancient monuments. A very fine copy, with the prints hand-enhanced at the time. The illustration, based on the author's drawings, comprises 40 plates, framed and titled, lithographed by some of France's finest artists, including Mlle Formentin, Motte, Thierry frères, Delpech, Sauvé and Lemercier, and enhanced with watercolors; a reproduction of a Turkish passport (double-page plate) and 12 lithographed vignettes in black with captions. A history painter and lithographer, Dupré (1789-1837) was a pupil of David, who influenced his art, and in 1811 became official painter to Jerome Bonaparte, King of Westphalia in Rome, thanks to Cardinal Fesch. This exceptional album is the fruit of an 1819 trip to Greece and Turkey in the company of three English gentlemen, Hyett, Hay and Vivian, who were his patrons in exchange for his life drawings of Corfu, Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece, Attica and the Saronic Islands. Dupré went on to Constantinople and Bucharest... A sought-after work. Colas 916. Blackmer 517. Lipperheide 1434. Weber 131. ORIENTALISM. NEO-CLACISSISM.