Folio size. Rare set of 14 etchings with captions, including an illustrated dedication to Ismail Pacha: “À son altess Ismail Pacha vice-roi d’Égypte”, representing the Sphinx of Giza, most engravings show signature of Dufeu at lower corner, some dated 1865, fitted in modern brown folder, Cadart et Luquet, Paris, ca 1860s.

Synopsis

EXTREMELY RARE; NOT IN BLACKMER OR HILMY OR COPAC. Only three copies located in France at the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre and
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon (the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon).
Edouard-Jacques Dufeu was a French artist, who depicted melancholic beauty in his paintings. During his life time, he was misunderstood, except for a few followers who understood his artistic greatness. His works are in the museum collections, including the Musée d’Orsay, the Louvre and the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon.
Dufeu did menial tasks to earn a daily living, providing drawings to ephemeral journals. He was an independent artist in the true sense of the word. The power of his artistic skills, averse to compromise, defied easy success. He was dedicated to the Viceroy of Egypt but, in all likelihood, his somewhat unruly nature did not allow him to take full advantage of working in the official world. He died in Grasse, leaving in his studio a considerable number of paintings, watercolours and drawings. Ms Berne-Bellecour, the stepdaughter of a military painter, had been a devoted friend of Dufeu and managed to bring his works to light after his death. The 14 plates are as follows:
1- The Sphinx of Giza, dedication to Ismail Pacha
II- The Nile: (lower Egypt) a Madame Amable Tastu, with the caption “E. Dufue invenit et sculpsit anno 1865 in Egypto” [“Devised and engraved by E. Dufue in the year 1865 in Egypt”].
III- A Cairo street.
IV- Souk El-Selah street in Cairo
V- Seidna El Halaii Mosque in Boulac
VI- A Street scene in Boulac
VII- A Street scene in Cairo showing a mosque in the background
VIII- A Street scene in Cairo.
IX- Colossi of Memnon
X- The Nile
XI- The Caliphs Tombs
XII View of Boulac Port
XIII- Delta landscape
XIV- Cairo, a scene near Bab el Ouh