Louis Dupré ( Versailles 9 January 1789 – 12 October 1837 Paris) was a

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, especially noted for his travels in Greece and other regions within the Ottoman Empire and of his numerous paintings with Orientalist and Philhellene 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 The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

. He often traveled and changed his work location, including Paris,

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(1811–1814), Naples (1814–1816), Rome (1816–1819, 1824–1831), Naples (1819–1820), Istanbul (c. 1820), Greece (c. 1820), Paris (1820–1837), and Vienna (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; a scene from the early stages of the

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