Art

A pair of pretty engravings of scenes from two of the Cyclades islands. The top one shows two women, a toddler and a baby in a domestic scene on Sifnos. The bottom shows a lovely view from the sea of Sikinos. 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. Uncoloured. Size: 22 x 33.5 cm. (8½ x 13 inches)