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'Vue d'une Caverne' & 'Tombeau du Marbre Blanc'. Artist/Engraver: Pl.6: 'Dessine par le Compt De Choiseul-Gouffier.' [Drawn by Choiseul-Gouffier]. 'Grave par J. B. Tilliard.' [Jean-Baptiste Tilliard (1740 - 1813)]. Pl.7: Dessine par J. B. Hillair. [Jean-Baptiste Hilaire (or Hilair) (1751?1828)]. 'Grave par J. B. Tilliard.' [Jean-Baptiste Tilliard (1740 - 1813)]. A single sheet of thick laid watermarked paper printed with two images from separate plates. Originally bound opposite page 11 of volume one of 'Voyage Pittoresque De La Grece' published in 1782 by Auguste de Choiseul-Gouffier (1752~1817). A second volume appeared in 1809 and a third (i.e. volume 2, part 2) was published posthumously in 1822. The author's unreserved admiration for Greece and its people, combined with the recreation of its topography and costume was received with great enthusiasm by the French public. The work is particularly notable for its plates, including as they do fine views, architectural details, accurate maps and head and tailpieces. Roughly 30 x 50cm. Images clean and undamaged. Unevenly cut right edge. Some yellowing/browning to edges. Light wear to couple corners. Choiseul-Gouffier travelled with the artist Jean-Baptiste Hilaire to the Levant in 1776 as a member of a scientific expedition to the eastern Mediterranean on board the Atalante, commanded by the marquis de Chabert, a veteran of the American Revolution, who was charged with the correction of the French navy's charts of the region. The party included Jean-Baptiste Hilaire, considered by Boppe, in his Les Peintres du Bosphore au Dix-huitième Siècle, to be the artist amongst the early orientalists who best understood the Levant, and who contributed the expressive landscapes and well-observed and characterful costume studies; the engineer and architect Jacques Foucherot, who surveyed the archaeological sites and provides the superb plates of architectural details; and Foucherot's secretary, François Kauffer, later to identify the site of ancient Troy at Hisarlik, who was responsible for producing of most of the detailed charts of harbours and islands. The spectacular baroque allegorical tailpieces, most of them emblematic of the islands visited, are the work of Guët, Choffard, Varin, Moreau le jeune, and Hilaire amongst others. Seller Inventory # 000771
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