Preziosi, Amedeo, Beaumont, Adalbert de | A striking collection of watercolors of Turkish and Egyptian scenes

Preziosi, Amedeo, and Adalbert de Beaumont

Souvenir de Constantinople et d'un Voyage fait en Egypte en 1845, par le Duc alors Prince Roger de Bauffremont. Aquarelles de Preziosi et du Vicomte Adalbert de Beaumont. Constantinople and Egypt: Unpublished, 1845

42 watercolors hinged onto 22 period card mounts, 7 signed by Preziosi and one by Beaumont (ranging in size from 108 x 140 mm to 330 x 520 mm), all with contemporary ink manuscript caption titles on the mount, some additionally captioned by the artists; glue a little dry, a couple of plates loosening from mount, occasional spotting and light toning to mounts, occasionally encroaching on plates. Housed in burgundy cloth chemise within a period burgundy morocco box made to resemble a paneled binding with gilt edges, signed by A[lphonse] Giroux, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David who manufactured the first daguerreotype camera, with original white silk lining in moiré pattern and white ribbon, clasped together with gold lock on fore-edge complete with key; spotting to silk lining, some wear to outer case, small scratches, light soiling.

A striking collection of watercolors of Turkish and Egyptian scenes, accomplished by two notable nineteenth-century Orientalist artists, documenting a journey through the region by the French Prince Roger de Bauffremont.

Some of these forty-two watercolors of Beaumont and Preziosi depict views of the Bosphorus, Therapia, and other sites in and around Constantinople. The remainder depict scenes and costumes of Egypt. Each an aristocrat, though Beaumont was French and Preziosi Maltese, they were both known as illustrators of travel books in the mid-nineteenth century. Preziosi's books were lavish chromolithographic affairs, as the present portfolio was likely intended to be. Preziosi had published Costumes of Constantinople (1844) the previous year, and would go on to issue Stamboul (1858) and Souvenir du Caire (1862). The son of Count Gio Francois Preziosi of Malta, Preziosi initially studied law before turning to painting. After studying under Giuseppe Hyzler, Preziosi finished his art training at the Paris Académie des Beaux-Arts. He moved to Constantinople in 1842, fell for the city, and was able to make a living painting the places and peoples that surrounded him. It is noted in the Atabey catalogue that "Preziosi was well-known. His studio is mentioned in Murray's guidebooks for 1854 and 1871. By that time he had become an institution in the city. He produced views of the city, and genre and costume drawings" (The Ottoman World). His paintings sold well to both the affluent local and the Grand Tourist, and his reputation was such that he also served as court painter to Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Less well-known, though no less skilled, is the other artist represented in these watercolors: Adalbert de Beaumont. De Beaumont traveled extensively, and authored several acclaimed works on Orientalist design and ornamentation.

The present watercolors, accomplished on behalf of a traveling French prince, were never published and constitute a valuable and skillfully rendered documentary of the sites visited and local costumes of the period. It is, as it were, a lost work from a bygone era.

Watercolor titles include:

• "Femmes Turques" (2)
• "Costumes Tures et Armeniens. Constantinople Septembre 1843" (2)
• "Vues de Therapia sur le Bosphore: En face du Palais de France; Palais de France" (2) 
• "Pont de Brousse. Asie Mineure"
• "Fouak sur le Nil"
• "Birket el Shaouareb. Le Caire"
• "Costumes Tures et Egyptiens"
• "Costumes de la Haute et de la Basse Egypte" (6)
• "Costumes de la Haute et de la Basse Egypte" (6)
• "Costumes Tures. Constantinople" (2)
• "Costumes Grecs" (2)
• "Souvenir de Constantinople Title Page"
• "Nubiens dans le Désert"
• "Musiciens du Maroc"
• "Vue du Bosphore prise de la Rive l'Asie"
• "Les Murailles de Constantinople"
• "Un Canal a Venise"
• "Une Porte de la Mosquee de Bajazet. Constantinople 1845"
• "Mosquee de Shazade. Constantinople 1845"
• "Palais Persan"
• "Therapia"
• "Untitled" (3)

REFERENCE:

Llewellyn, The People and Places of Constantinople: Watercolors by Amedeo Count Preziosi; Sotheby's, The Ottoman World: The Library of Sefik E. Atabey p.535

PROVENANCE:

Prince Roger de Bauffremont