Art

A striking scene showing the author's own reception in the palatial home of Hassan Tchaousch-Oglou. The host and his son sit imposingly beside their two guests, in a raised part of the room. They are attended by servants offering them refreshments, and a large host of onlookers. In 1776 Choiseul-Gouffier and the artist J.B. Hilaire joined a cartographic survey of the Mediterranean. Volume I of Voyage Pittoresque, his account of their tour of the Greek islands, the coast of Asia Minor, and of his travels on the mainland, was immediately acclaimed on publication in 1778. According to Brunet, it was incontestably the most beautiful production of this kind seen until then. Choiseul-Gouffier's work offered for the first time, illustrations of remote places that complemented the scrupulously researched narrative. Copper engraving. Later colour. Size: 37 x 25.5 cm. (14½ x 10 inches)