Portrait of M. Fauvel, the French Consul, with View of the Acropolis

With its commanding view of the ancient Acropolis in Athens, this picture embodies Louis Dupré's preoccupation with the ancient monuments he sketched and painted in Greece in 1819. The subject of the portrait is Louis-François-Sébastien Fauvel (1753–1838), the French consul who served as guide and host to European travelers in Athens from 1780 to 1822. Fauvel is here attended by his Armenian servant on the veranda of his home on the site of the ancient Athenian marketplace, the agora. In this sensitive and penetrating portrait, Dupré captures the many aspects of Fauvel's interests by showing him with the attributes and acquisitions of artist and antiquarian, including ancient relief sculptures.