Very Good French Original color copper engraving. Oblong folio. (26 x 36 cm). Description in French. Incendie du quartier de Pera a Constantinople, 9 Aôut 1839. Painted by Theodore Gudin, (1802-1880); Engraved by Joseph John Skelton, (1783-1871). Rare color engraved print. Shows 1839 fire in Pera area in Istanbul (probably that district is Kasimpasa which mostly mariners live in), and its chaos: hectic people have appeared on the roofs of the burning houses, law enforcement agencies are working, and the muezzin has been seen on balcony for 'selâ'. Jean Antoine Théodore Gudin was a French painter of the 19th century, born in Paris. He especially painted navy scenes, and was a pupil of Girodet-Trioson. Gudin was one of the first Peintres de la Marine, at the court of Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III. Gudin died at Boulogne-sur-Seine in 1880. His daughter Henriette Gudin also became a marine painter. Skelton was an English engraver. He was brother of William Skelton, and became an engraver specialising in topographical and antiquarian subjects. Before 1819 he went to live at Oxford. Later Skelton settled in France. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1825; his name disappears from its lists in 1844. At Oxford he published Oxonia Antiqua Illustrata (1823); Antiquities of Oxfordshire, from drawings by F. Mackenzie (1823); Pietas Oxoniensis, or Records of Oxford Founders (1828); and Engraved Illustrations of Antient Arms and Armour from the Collection at Goodrich Court from the Drawings, and with the Descriptions of Dr. Meyrick, (2 volumes, 1830). He also engraved the heading to the Oxford almanacks for the years 1815 to 1831, from drawings by F. Mackenzie and C. Wild; and executed a set of fifty-six etchings of the antiquities of Bristol after H. O'Neill. (Source: Wikipedia).
