The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 26, 2024

Egyptian Family (Sketch for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

Egyptian Family (Sketch for "The Battle of the Pyramids")

c. 1835
(French, 1771–1835)
Framed: 377.2 x 154.9 x 12.7 cm (148 1/2 x 61 x 5 in.); Unframed: 353.1 x 132.1 cm (139 x 52 in.); Former: 306.8 x 131.5 cm (120 13/16 x 51 3/4 in.)

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.
  • J.-B. Delestre, Paris. His sale, Drouot, 13-14 October 1871 (lot 1), Les deux esquisses pour les pendentifs de droite et de gauche, surajoutés au tableau de la Bataille des Pyramides, ff 500 to M. Couvreur (perhaps sold to J. Arnous de Rivière, directeur de Revue illustrée, bought for ff 700 at Delestre sale, through 1880; Tripier le Franc 1880, 500). Gustave Rothan, Château de Luttenbach, (near Munster, Alsace). By descent after his death in 1890 to his daughter, Christa Anna Maria Rothan (in 1895, Baronne Pierre de Coubertin) until after 1917, Lausanne. By 1955, Jacques Seligmann & Co, New York, 1955. Purchased by the CMA in 1972.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 202 archive.org
    Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 329-335, Vol. I, no. 115
  • Gros's studio, Paris, 14, rue de l'Ancienne-Comédie. (mid-July 1835, according to Tripier le Franc 1880, 632).
    New York, Jacques Seligmann & Co.; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; cma. Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835), Painter of Battles, the First Romantic Painter (1955-56), no. 2, pls. 2a-b, private collection, Paris.
    Paris, Petit Palais. Gros, ses amis, ses élèves (1936), no. 57.
    Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden. (1920-55). Long-term loan.
  • {{cite web|title=Egyptian Family (Sketch for "The Battle of the Pyramids")|url=false|author=Antoine-Jean Gros|year=c. 1835|access-date=26 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1972.17.2