Louis Dupré (

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

9 January 1789 – 12 October 1837

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

) was a French painter, especially noted for his travels in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders ...

and other regions within the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

and of his numerous paintings with Orientalist and

Philhellene Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron and Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek i ...

themes. Louis Dupré had been a student of Jacques-Louis David, and had later become a painter for Jérôme Bonaparte, receiving commissions from the court. Dupré had studied in Italy and had also received commissions during his travels there. He travelled to Greece, during a time when the region's ancient ideals and Hellenistic culture had experienced a revival. It also represented a concerning time for the Ottoman Empire, in terms of keeping their territorial regions under control. His visit to Greece was on the very eve of the Greek War of Independence. He often traveled and changed his work location, including

, Kassel (1811–1814),

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

(1814–1816),

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

(1816–1819, 1824–1831),

(1819–1820),

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

(c. 1820),

(1820–1837), and

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(1820–1824).

Travel book

Dupré visited Greece in 1819, while it was still part of the Ottoman Empire, and recorded his time there with drawings and descriptions of the people from the different levels of society. His travel book, named ''Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople,'' was produced a few years later after his travels, in 1825. It was released in France after Greece had begun to rebel against the Ottoman Empire. His travel book consists of forty illustrations accompanied by fifty-two pages of text.

Gallery

File:Dupre-Salona-1821.jpg, Dupré's depiction of Nikolakis Mitropoulos raising his flag at

Salona Salona ( grc, Σάλωνα) was an ancient city and the capital of the Roman province of Dalmatia. Salona is located in the modern town of Solin, next to Split, in Croatia. Salona was founded in the 3rd century BC and was mostly destroyed in ...

; a scene from the early stages of the Greek War of Independence in 1821. File:Dupré - Ali Pasha.jpg, A hand-coloured lithograph by Louis Duprè in his travel book, Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople, plate VII. File:Louis-Dupre-Pacha.jpg, A hand-coloured lithograph by Louis Duprè in his travel book, Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople. Named The Prince of Moldavia, Michael Soutsos. File:Un Prêtre Grec et un Turc - Louis Dupré.jpg, A hand-coloured lithograph by Louis Duprè in his travel book, Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople. Named A Greek Priest and a Turk. File:Armenian and his wife.jpg, A hand-coloured lithograph by Louis Duprè in his travel book, Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople. Named An Armenian Prince and His Wife (Duzoglou).

Bibliography

Elisabeth A. Fraser, "Skin of Nation, Body of Empire: Louis Dupré in Ottoman Greece," i
''Mediterranean Encounters: Artists Between Europe and the Ottoman Empire, 1774-1839''
Penn State University Press, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dupre, Louis 1789 births 1837 deaths 19th-century French painters French male painters French philhellenes Orientalist painters 19th-century French male artists