Two Constantinople Panoramas.

Two unusual watercolour panoramas depicting the Bosphorus.

Jean Baptiste Hilaire ( 1751-1828) was a well known French painter who in 1776, toured the Greek islands and the Orient, creating over a hundred works, used to illustrate his 'Voyagé Pittoresque de la Grèce', published in three volumes in 1782. His talent became recognised and his work exhibited in Paris at such places as the Salon de la Jeunesse in 1780, and at the Salon de la Correspondence the same year. He took part in the official exhibitions of the Louvre in the salon of 1796.