Count Marie-Gabriel de Choiseul-Gouffier

Bosphorus: Castle of Europe and Castle of Asia (Rumelihisarı and Anadoluhisarı). Entrance to the Black Sea.

The eighteenth century saw a great surge of interest in the history and culture of Greece with the discovery of the ruins at Herculaneum in 1748. The archaeological interest complemented the romantic notions of contemporary philosophers, who portrayed the civilization of ancient Greece as a paragon of harmony, untainted by the materialism and corruption of their own times.

As a passionate admirer of all things Greek, Marie-Gabriel-Florent-Auguste, Count de Choiseuil-Gouffier was very much a product of his time. In 1776, he set off on a voyage across the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, stopping at a number of Greek Islands and then sailing down the Turkish coast, chronicling cities and ruins along the way.

In 1782 he issued he issued Voyages Pittoresques dans les Iles de la Grèce with his own illustrations engraved by some of the most talented craftsmen of his time. Today, the representations of local life, the tenderly rendered landscapes, and carefully recorded architectural details, provide a rich evocation of the idealised rustic beauty of the Greek Islands.