MONTFORT, ANTOINE-ALPHONSE.

Douaniers Turc. Asie Mineure Mai 1828 [caption title].

Paris. chez Gihaut frères éditeurs. ( 1829.). Stock ID #177831

Hand-coloured lithograph, 21.5 x 26.5; 26.6 x 35.1 cm (sheet), margins toned, old paper repair to the top margin, two very small edge tears, but the image in very good condition.

A rare and finely hand-coloured lithograph by Antoine- Alphonse Montfort (1802-1884) and the first in a series of six lithographs on philhellenic and orientalist subjects by him published in 1829.

A pupil of Horace Vernet, "Montfort travelled to the Eastern Mediterranean for the first time in 1827 as a professor of art to young marine officers of the French navy on the ship 'La Victorieuse'. He was so taken by the East that ten years later he returned with his friend Leboux and visited Beirut, Jordan, and Syria (1837-38). Their main interest was ethnographic, so much of Montfort's work comprises drawings of costumes and Eastern figures. He was very observant of people and costumes...

The artist made detailed comparisons between the costumes of Greeks and Turks. Similar studies were made around the same time by other French artists travelling in North Africa and the Middle East. Montfort's drawings reflect the Orientalist's fascination with the exotic as well as the contemporary interest in Greek ethnography aroused in the West by Greek independence."

[see "Although to Sight Lost, to Memory Dear. Representations of Cyprus by foreign travellers/artists 1700-1955" Dr. Rita C. Severis, Bristol University, 1999 pp. 99-100]

When referring to this item please quote stockid 177831.

Price: $700.00 AU

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