Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois

Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois, was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum. He was born in 1780 and died in 1846.

Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Born1780
Died1846
Nationality France
Known for- First archaeological excavations in Olympia, Greece
- Discovery of the temple of Olympian Zeus
Notable work
Illustration of the Egyptian Pantheon of Jean-François Champollion
ElectedCurator at the Louvre Museum
Patron(s)- Antoine-Jean Gros
- Jacques-Louis David
- Jean-François Champollion

Life
Egyptian God Horus (in Pantheon Egyptien illustrated by Dubois)

Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros and Jacques-Louis David in Paris. He became then a designer and lithographer.

In 1823, he became acquainted with the well-known Egyptologist Jean-François Champollion, who introduced him to the Egyptian art, and who chose him later to illustrate his work, the Egyptian Pantheon.[1]

In 1826, Dubois travelled to Italy, accompanied by Champollion and Italian archaeologist Ippolito Rosellini. The same year, following the creation by "the ordinance of May 15" of the conservation of antiques (known as Charles X Museum) at the Louvre museum, Champollion was appointed curator of the Egyptian and Oriental division of the Louvre, while Dubois was appointed assistant curator.

In December 1828, Dubois was charged by the Institut de France to head the section of Archaeology of the scientific expedition of Morea, which was sent to Greece at the end of the Greek War of Independence. Dubois and his colleague Abel Blouet (from the section of Architecture and Sculpture) arrived in Peloponnese in March 1829 and both led the first archaeological excavations ever carried out in the ancient city of Messene founded in 369 BC by Epaminondas. Dubois spent a full month in the ancient city, starting on April 10.[2]

On 10 May 1829, Dubois and Blouet went to the ancient sanctuary of Olympia, where they spent six weeks. They undertook, there as well, the first excavations ever made on the archaeological site and we owe Dubois the discovery of the temple of Olympian Zeus.[3][4][5] Dubois and Blouet were accompanied by painters Frédéric de Gournay, Pierre Achille Poirot, Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval, and by a troop of more than a hundred workers.[4] Historian Edgar Quinet, who was also part of the Archaeology section, did not contribute to the excavations, as he already had left the section to continue his exploration of Greece alone.[6]

The painter Amaury-Duval gave in his Souvenirs (1829-1830) a detailed description of Dubois and his team during the Morea expedition.[7]

Map of the first archaeological excavations in ancient Olympia by the expedition of Morea in May 1829, with the temple of Olympian Zeus (by Guillaume-Abel Blouet and Pierre Achille Poirot)

Bibliography

References
  1. Jean-François Champollion, Panthéon égyptien, collection des personnages mythologiques de l'ancienne Égypte, d'après les monuments / avec un texte explicatif, par M. J.-F. Champollion le jeune ; et les fig., d'après les dessins de M. L.-J.-J. Dubois, Paris, imprimerie Firmin Didot, 1823.
  2. Abel Blouet, Expedition scientifique de Morée, ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français ; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique by Abel Blouet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, volume I, Firmin Didot, Paris, 1831.
  3. Yiannis Saïtas et al., L'œuvre de l'expédition scientifique de Morée 1829-1838, Edited by Yiannis Saïtas, Editions Melissa, 2011 (1st Part) - 2017 (2nd Part).
  4. Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval (painter, member of the scientific commission), Souvenirs (1829-1830), Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885.
  5. Plan of the site of the temple of Zeus at Olympia (in Abel Blouet et Amable Ravoisié, Expédition scientifique de Morée, ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français. Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l’Attique., Firmin Didot, 1831)
  6. Edgar Quinet (historian, member of the scientific commission), De la Grèce moderne, et de ses rapports avec l'antiquité., F.-G. Levrault, Paris, 1830.
  7. "Mr. Dubois, head of the section of archaeology, in which I was a designer, had been a student of David. I would readily believe that his dispositions for painting were not great enough for him to continue to follow this career; the fact remains that he renounced it and became, I do not know by what circumstances, friend and assistant of the great Champollion. He had exercised his eye in many expertises, had probably gleaned a little to the right and to the left, especially in the conversation of his master, who made him obtain, at the Louvre Museum, a fairly important place. Tall, fat, lively, cheerful, an appearance of Joseph Prudhomme, with whom gold glasses gave him even more resemblance. His repertoire of workshop charges, although varied, was not inexhaustible, however; the jokes and the stories he told in a funny way, repeated themselves a little; some dated from the time of the Empire, but I did not know them, and they amused me. He was married and lived in Paris, with his wife and young daughter, in a modest but comfortable interior; during our excursion, I often heard him regret this family life, without ever having wanted to go deeper into what he regretted the most, because it was especially during our meals that he complained. What I have to add is that at first glance he was very attractive, and that he made a lot of expenses, especially for the latest arrivals.", Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Duval, Souvenirs (1829-1830), Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885.

Annexes
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