Lot 64
Louis-François Cassas(Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles)Studies of Egyptian figures
3 December 2025, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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Louis-François Cassas (Azay-le-Ferron 1756-1827 Versailles)
Studies of Egyptian figures
inscribed '...egypte an VI del la republique' (lower left)
pen, black ink and watercolour heightened with white on laid paper
25 x 37.5cm (9 13/16 x 14 3/4in).
inscribed '...egypte an VI del la republique' (lower left)
pen, black ink and watercolour heightened with white on laid paper
25 x 37.5cm (9 13/16 x 14 3/4in).
Footnotes
Provenance
With Stoppenbach and Delestre, London, 1982-3
With Colnaghi, New York
Sale, Christie's, London, 10 December 1991, lot 217
Private Collection, London
Cassas is known for his watercolours, often on a large scale, documenting his travels to Italy, Greece and the Near East in the later years of the eighteenth century. While working in Rome he met the diplomat Choiseul-Gouffier and accompanied him to Constantinople when the latter was appointed French Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. From there Cassas travelled to Alexandria in 1785 and more widely around the Levant. It is likely that the present watercolour was made from studies drawn at that time, although the inscription 'year VI of the Republic' dates it to 1797/8. The drawings Cassas made on his trip to the Levant were worked up into Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phenicie, de la Palestine, et de la Basse Egypte which he published with the assistance of Choiseul-Gouffier in 1799, although the full run was never completed.