This coloured reproduction is a portrait of the Greek merchant brig Leonidas, which in 1820 was in Turkish ownership. In the background is the gulet Therpsicore (a traditional Mediterranean two- or three-masted sailing vessel). Both ships were built at Hydra by the Greek shipping company Tombazi. The French inscription reads: ‘Brig Leonidas constructed at Hydra and the gulet Therpsicore also constructed at Hydra by Manoli of Nicolas Tombazi’. The photographer and publisher are named in Greek below the image, left and right respectively. This is one of a number of ship portraits painted by Antoine Roux, who was one of a famous family of marine painters and hydrographers in Marseille. He signed himself ‘Ante Roux a Marseille’ 1801-1830.