Lot Essay
The artist is apparently unrecorded. The present lot connects and derives from, in the same sense, a print by Louis Dupré (1789-1837), although the background landscape differs substantially (see W. Plomer, Ali the Lion, 1936, opposite p. 258).
Ali Pasha was an Albanian adventurer who dominated Epirus, in the North-West of Greece, then under the control of the Ottoman Turks. In 1788 he was made governor of Trikkala by the Turks, and seized Jannina the next year, making it his headquarters. Under his rule Jannina became quite a cultural centre, the British topographer Col. W. M. Leake basing himself there, and Byron paying a visit in 1809.
In 1820 the town was besieged by the Turks, and Ali set fire to and largely destroyed it. In 1822 he was finally defeated by the Turks and subsequently executed on 5 February 1820.
Plomer, loc. cit., records that, in 1819 a young French painter, Louis Dupré, travelled to Butrinto with Sir Thomas Maitland, the High Commissioner at Corfu. A few days after their arrival, Ali organised a shoot on Lake Butrinto, on which both Dupré and Maitland were invited. "Dupré's great moment was when he managed to get sufficiently near to Ali to make a drawing of him without the old man's knowledge ... He noticed that Ali had by his side two richly dressed young men of the most perfect beauty; they were acting as loaders for their master...". (Plomer, op. cit., 1936, p. 239).
Ali Pasha was an Albanian adventurer who dominated Epirus, in the North-West of Greece, then under the control of the Ottoman Turks. In 1788 he was made governor of Trikkala by the Turks, and seized Jannina the next year, making it his headquarters. Under his rule Jannina became quite a cultural centre, the British topographer Col. W. M. Leake basing himself there, and Byron paying a visit in 1809.
In 1820 the town was besieged by the Turks, and Ali set fire to and largely destroyed it. In 1822 he was finally defeated by the Turks and subsequently executed on 5 February 1820.
Plomer, loc. cit., records that, in 1819 a young French painter, Louis Dupré, travelled to Butrinto with Sir Thomas Maitland, the High Commissioner at Corfu. A few days after their arrival, Ali organised a shoot on Lake Butrinto, on which both Dupré and Maitland were invited. "Dupré's great moment was when he managed to get sufficiently near to Ali to make a drawing of him without the old man's knowledge ... He noticed that Ali had by his side two richly dressed young men of the most perfect beauty; they were acting as loaders for their master...". (Plomer, op. cit., 1936, p. 239).