Mavrocordatos at Missolonghi.

HESS, PETER VON. J.B. Kuhn after Peter von Hess. Mavrocordatos defends Missolonghi. "Mavrocordtos defends Missolonghi victoriously". Munich H. Kohler c1835
Tinted lithograph, as issued, of Alexander Mavrocordatos on the walls of Missolonghi from Peter von Hess's Album of Greek Heroism, or the Deliverance of Greece / Griechenlands Befreiung ... in XXXIX Bildern.[ First edition.] within decorative borders incorporating captions in Greek, German, French & English. The borders are decorated with guns, swords and helmets with the Greek flag to the left; on the right a crucifix and other emblems of the Christian church; at the top Turkish weapons, laid down, with a fez and below, sails and naval instruments.
The image shows Mavrocordatos on the walls of Missolonghi, looking out to sea as a canon is pulled into position.

The first siege of Missolonghi ,October 25 – December 31, 1822 was laid after the Battle of Peta ,Omer Vryonis initially tried to take the town by negotiations, against the opinion of Reşid Mehmed and Yussuf Pasha of Patras. The besieged Greeks took advantage of this, dragging the negotiations out until November 8, when they were reinforced by sea with over 1,500 fighters. Then the Ottomans realized their mistake, and resumed the siege in earnest. After a month of bombardment and sorties, the main Ottoman assault was set for the night of December 24, before Christmas, calculating that the Greeks would be caught by surprise. The Greeks however were warned by Vryonis' Greek secretary, and the attack failed. The siege was subsequently lifted on December 31.
Missolonghi remained under Greek control, and resisted another Ottoman attempt at its capture a year later. Its resistance achieved wider fame when Lord Byron arrived there, dying in the town of fever in April 1824. The city was besieged for a third and final time, resisting both Ottoman and Egyptian armies for almost a year, until its final fall on April 10, 1826. Image bright and clean; spotting to blank borders; short tear (15mm) at upper edge.

Peter( Heinrich Lambert} von Hess 1792-1871,
was a German painter, known for historic paintings, especially of the Napoleonic Wars and the Greek War of Independence.
In 1833, at Ludwig's request, he accompanied Otto of Greece to the newly formed Kingdom of Greece, where at Athens he gathered materials for pictures of the war of liberation. He stayed nine months in Greece, interviewing heroes and eyewitnesses of the 1821 revolution. His first- hand knowledge of the heroes gives power to his work. He drew 39 historical persons The sketches which he then made were placed, forty in number, in the Pinakothek, after being copied in wax on a large scale by Nilsen, in the northern arcades of the Hofgarten at Munich, [sadly now destroyed].
It should be noted that Hess was not present during the Revolution; the paintings are representations of reported events. many are of Greek victories, or of heroic deaths of the Greek leaders.
Not in Blackmer ,Droulia or Contominas. 540 by 410mm (21¼ by 16¼ inches)full page.   ref: 1924  €750