Dimitrius Mavromichalis "Démétrius Mavromichalis.

Philhellenic: Paris "Imprimerie de Dondey-Dupré, Rue St Louis, No 46, Au Marais." 1825-37. Coloured lithograph of Dimitrius Mavromichalis from Louis Dupré's " Voyage â Athènes et â Constantinople...". Original hand colour; verso blank; blind stamp of Dupré as issued. The image shows the young warrior holding a sword against a background of the wild Mani countryside and sea. As one of the later lithographs it is more than likely that it was posed for and painted in Paris where Demetius Mavromichalis , the fifth and last son of Petrobey, Mavromichalis was studying between 1828 and 1831. It is beleived that Dupré wished to honour the heroic history of the Mavromichalis family and its role in the Revolution. The Swiss Philhellene Jean-Gabriel Eynard isbeleived to have recommended Demetrius for his" sweet character and good behaviour" though he had reservations about the progress of his studies and the debts he was running up. Born in !809 the youngest son of Petrobey Mavromichalis, he would have been too young to have taken an active role in the Revolution of 1821. His father became a member of the Filiki Eteria,in 1819 and in 1819 he brokered a formal pact among the major kapetanaioi families. On March 17, 1821, Petrobey raised his war flag in Areopolis, effectively signaling the start of the Greek War of Independence. His troops marched into Kalamata, and took the city on March 23. After the summer of 1822, Petrobey retired from battle, leaving the leadership of his troops to his sons (two of whom were killed fighting). Demetrius would spend many years living in Paris and entered the military reaching the rank of major. he took an active part in the revolution of October 1862 which saw King Otto leave the country, Mavromichalis served in the interim administration and became Minister of the Military. he died in Athens in 1879. Removed from a frame; even toning; colours faded; some light spotting to margins. Louis Dupré [1789-1837]. A pupil of Jacques-Louis David in Paris, Louis Dupré became resident in Rome and was appointed official painter to the prince Jerome Bonaparte, in 1811. In 1819, Louis Dupré took a six-month tour of Greece and Turkey, accompanied by three affluent English gentlemen, Messrs Hyett, Vivian, and Hay. He was received by the French consul Fauvel in Athens and introduced into Greek society allowing him to make his paintings of important personalities of the time, both in Athens and in Joannina where he portayed Ali Pascha, his family and attendants. He continued to Thessaly and from there he sailed to Constantinople, where he made the acquaintance of Prince Michael Soutzo of Moldavia with whom he returned to Italy via Romania. Upon arriving in Constantinople his companions left quickly, frightened by an outbreak of the plague. Dupré, however, remained and completed a series of watercolors. Nevertheless, the Englishmen funded Dupré's entire trip in exchange for these drawings, of which the artist also made duplicates that he exhibited at the Salon of 1824. His work " Voyage â Athènes et â Constantinople" was published in 10 livraisons, in Paris in 1825 through to 1837, consisting of 40 lithographs: portraits, costumes and views of Athenian antiquities, based upon these drawings. [Colnaghi of London pirated 2 of the portraits of Ali Pascha and published them before Dupré.] The work became synonymous with the Greek War of Independence. The image of Mitropolos, holding the Greek standard symbolizes the Greek victory. Louis Dupré's" Voyage à Athènes et à Constantinople "is a fascinating example of a travel book so contradictory it begs to be read against the grain. Taking the form of a costume album, it is based on notes and drawings made during the artist's voyage in the Ottoman Empire in 1819. However, the book was produced in France from 1825 to 1839, after the outbreak of Greek insurrections against Ottoman rule in 1821, a popular cause in France. This contextual gap between the moment of travel and the moment of production accounts for the work's contradictory aspects. It is overtly philhellenic, taking the side of the Greek rebels in their conflict with the Ottomans, seeing in the insurgence a revival of ancient ideals and culture. Yet key aspects of the work, particularly its costume images, tug against and undermine its underlying turcophobia and, ultimately, its nationalist, essentialist message of Hellenic regeneration. Dupré's colorful plates are striking and even hauntingly memorable, arresting the viewer's attention. His close-up depiction of boldly posed figures introduces an ambiguity into his travel account that belies its ideological frame. In particular, the costume images, resembling Ottoman-produced costume albums, implicitly celebrate a notion of empire-as-diversity that contradicts Dupré's nationalist text. [Elizabeth Fraser, Ottoman Costume and Inclusive Empire: Louis Dupré in Ottoman Greece .Fashioning Identities symposium, Hunter College, NYC, October 2013] Colas 916; Lipperheide 1434; Droulia 901; Navari/ Blackmer: 517; Sotheby's/Blackmer 559 Philhellenic Peloponessus Demitrius Mavromichalis Mani