“Napoleon in Egypt”
This oil on wood panel painting is by the French Academic artist, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and is titled “Napoleon in Egypt”. It was painted between 1867 and 1868. In the 1860s, Gérôme painted several scenes depicting Napoleon Bonaparte, as one of his major clients was Napoleon III, the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon III played a role in keeping the cult of his uncle alive, recasting him and his memory as a hero of France.
This painting is based on when Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798 with over 55,000 soldiers and 400 ships in an attempt to gain control over the land route to India. He wanted to add Egypt to the French Empire to increase France’s power while hurting Great Britain’s economy.
The French occupation lasted until 1801 when they were ousted from Egypt by the British after losing the infamous Battle of the Nile. During those few years, Napoleon occupied approximately 150 artists, engineers, mathematicians, naturalists, scientists to document and record Egypt’s buildings, ruins, monuments, flora, fauna and terrain as well as the region’s society and forms of commerce.
In this piece, Napoleon is depicted in his outfit as a general during the French Revolution. He stands in front of the Mamluk tombs and mausoleums that line the road outside of Cairo,Egypt. The tombs house the remains of men who were born as slaves and rose to great prominence as imperial leaders in Egypt during the 14th and 15th centuries. The artist is obviously drawing a parallel between the men housed in the tombs and Napoleon Bonaparte himself.
Gérôme visited this area during his travels to Egypt in the late 1850s and renders an almost photographic depiction of the setting.
“Napoleon in Egypt” is currently in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum in Princeton, New Jersey.
For more on Jean-Léon Gérôme, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
