The finest colour plate book on Greece & Turkey. First edition of the finest colour plate book ever produced on Greece and Turkey.

Born in Versailles in 1789, little is known about Dupré's family or childhood. However, he had a powerful patron in Count Clément de Ris, thanks to whom he was able to study at the school of the renowned painter Jacques-Louis David, an apprenticeship that had a decisive impact on his personality as well as his art. In 1811, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Bishop of Lyon, connoisseur and statesman, sent Dupré to Kassel, where he was named court painter to the king of Westphalia, Jérôme Bonaparte, who also facilitated Dupré's journey to Rome to study, in 1813.

In Italy, Dupré travelled, studied and drew antiquities, in particular vases, while developing his skills in landscape and portrait painting. He became acquainted with artists such as the sculptor David d'Angers, the painter J.A.D. Ingres, the composer J. Rossini and the architect C.R. Cockerell. He met three British art lovers, Hyett, Hay and Vivian, who suggested that he accompany them on their journey to Greece, in February 1819.

This journey, which lasted until April 1820, completely met Dupré's expectations. He saw the ideal world of ancient Greece reveal itself before his eyes, the scope of his subjects became broader and his art was animated by a fresh élan. The party of four travelled to Corfu, Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece, Attica, and the Saronic islands. Dupré himself continued on to Constantinople and Bucharest, invited by Michael Soutsos (1784-1864), great dragoman of the Sublime Porte and prince of Moldavia.

Polite, sociable, energetic, forthright, courageous and honest, with a love of freedom and homeland, Dupré was well-liked by the Greeks. In 1825, after his return home, he published his travel album with forty lithographs in colour, made by the best lithographers in France, and from 1827 he exhibited his Greek-themed paintings in the yearly Paris Salon.

'Man, nature, religious sentiment, the reminiscence of antiquity and the charm of the East are Dupré's favourite subjects. However, the journey to Greece was a landmark in the evolution of his thematic repertoire. Although nature has the power to give new wings to memory and imagination, Dupré gave priority to portraits and costumes. He depicts human types with precision, devoid of passion, exempt of exoticism, he makes an appraisal of countenance, posture and dress, while each detail refers the viewer to the whole and vice versa. In all of Dupré's works there is a clarity of subject, while the ethos of the representation is enhanced in a balanced composition. His fluid, flexible lines achieve a harmonious union of drawing and colour. He succeeds in highlighting the cultural differences between East and West' (Ioli Vingopoulou, Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation).

First edition, folio (59.2 x 43.8 cm), engraved title page, dedication, 52 pp., 12 engraved vignettes in text, 40 fine hand-coloured lithographs by Lemercier after Dupré, all plates titled and numbered, and blind-stamped with the artist's monogram encircled; complete with the Turkish Firman, text leaves a bit spotted, small marginal repair to lower blank margin plate 1, last plate a little toned with small marginal repairs to verso, all tissue guards taped to verso of preceding plate, contemporary Greek red half morocco gilt by Lardi of Athens with his ticket, neatly rebacked, corners renewed, covers a little spotted.

Atabey 381; Blackmer 517; Colas 916; Koç II, 243; Lipperheide 1434.