BY MICHEL FRANCOIS PREAULX, OTTOMAN TURKEY, LATE 18TH CENTURY

An architect by training, Michel-Francois Préaulx arrived in Constantinople in 1796 as part of a team invited by Sultan Selim III to supply military and naval installations for the Ottoman forces. He remained in Constantinople despite Napoleon’s France changing from ally to enemy of the Ottomans and continued to produce topographical drawings for British and French visitors, including the British Ambassador to Constantinople between 1799-1803, Lord Elgin. A number of the drawings commissioned by Elgin are now in the British Museum. He was still in Turkey in 1827, completing drawings for various books, including Constantinople et le Bosphore de Thrace pendant les années 1812, 1813, 1814 et pendant l'année 1827 by General Andreossy (Paris, 1828) and Atlas des promenades pittoresques dans Constantinople et sur les Rives du Bosphore by Charles Pertusier (Paris, 1817). The format of our watercolour, with the black outlines and blue margins and identifications in the lower margin, is very similar to one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (SD.822; https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O148083/st-john-dacre-with-hbms-watercolour-preaulx-preaux-michel/).