Palerme Vue prise au dessus du Palais Royal

Alfred Guesdon was born in Nantes, June the 13th 1808. Once he finished his classical studies, in 1829, he went to Paris, to study architecture as a pupil of Antoine Martin Garnaud. Starting from 1830, he devoted himself to experimentations and researches on the art of lithography, especially on historical subjects, views and landscapes he took from his many trips around Europe.

The distinctiveness of these views is the fact that they are the first representations of the cities from above, realized on board of an air balloon. In 1849 he published the lithographic plates in the famous L’Italie à vol d’oiseau., o storia e descrizione sommaria delle principali città di questo paese, di H. Etiennez, accompagnate da 40 grandi vedute generali, disegnate dal vero da Alfred Guesdon e litografate con due tinte da A. Rouargue, Jules Arnout, A. Cuvillier, A. Guesdon.

Tinted litograph with later hand colour, very good condition.