Artwork Page for General Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Egyptian Family (Sketches for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

Details / Information for General Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Egyptian Family (Sketches for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

General Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Egyptian Family (Sketches for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

c. 1835

Antoine-Jean Gros

(French, 1771–1835)
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Culture
France, 19th century
Medium
oil on linen
Measurements
Framed: 377.2 x 126 x 12 cm (148 1/2 x 49 5/8 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 352.1 x 97.8 cm (138 5/8 x 38 1/2 in.); Former: 306 x 98 cm (120 1/2 x 38 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1972.17
Public Domain
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Location
201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture
Print

Description

In 1810, Gros exhibited a massive painting of Napoleon at the 1798 Battle of the Pyramids, one of the rare French triumphs in the failed campaign to conquer Egypt (1789-1801). After Napoleon first fell from power in 1814, the painting went into storage, until the new king Louis-Philippe chose to resurrect it for a history museum in Paris. However, perhaps to diminish Napoleon's significance, the government asked Gros to amplify the original with an addition at each end. This painting incorporates General Kléber, a famously successful military leader who had been excluded from the original painting.
A vertically oriented oil painting features two panels composed of thin, brushy layers and muted earth tones. On our left, General Jean-Baptiste Kléber rides a chestnut horse with his sword-arm raised. On our right, a man in a green tunic and white turban stands between a crouching man and a woman in gray. All figures have light skin tones against a backdrop of sketchy soldiers under a hazy, clouded sky.

General Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Egyptian Family (Sketches for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

c. 1835

Antoine-Jean Gros

(French, 1771–1835)
France, 19th century

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