Benjamin perronnet V5 - Flipbook - Page 40
Awarded the Grand Prix for architecture in 1776, Desprez
arrived in Rome in the summer of 1777. In November, he
was hired by Abbé de Saint-Non (1727-1791) to illustrate his
Voyage pittoresque des royaumes de Naples et de Sicile.
He left for the South with Dominique-Vivant Denon (17471825), in charge of coordinating the project, and other
artists, including Claude-Louis Chatelet (1753-1795).
They stayed in Naples from November 1777 to April 8,
1778, when the expedition left for Apulia and Calabria.
After visiting Bari, and before going on to Brindisi, where
they arrived on May 2, they stayed in Polignano a Mare,
where Desprez drew two views of the steep harbor, where
houses cling to the cli昀昀s, in one of his notebooks, now kept
at the Stockholm Academy (Fig. 1 and 2).
It was later, perhaps even a few years later, that he
produced the present two drawings, which are largely
inspired by them, but which he has embellished with stormtossed ships. In one, the view is taken from the sea, in the
other from inside. The views of Polignano were not chosen
by the Abbé to illustrate his Voyage. Instead, he chose
to include an engraving based on a drawing by Chatelet
showing the nearby sea caves
of Polignano a Mare.
The two present drawings belonged to Nils Wollin, the
great Swedish specialist in Desprez’s work. In 1935, he
published a monograph that is still the de昀椀nitive reference
for anyone interested in the artist.
Fig. 2 Louis-Jean Desprez, Vue de Polignano a Mare,,
Konstakademien, Stockholm.
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