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.
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]
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).
Marie-Noëlle Bourguet, Bernard Lepetit,
Daniel Nordman, Maroula Sinarellis, L’Invention scientifique de la Méditerranée. Égypte, Morée, Algérie., Éditions de l’EHESS, 1998. (
ISBN2-7132-1237-5)
^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)
^"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.