The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

A print in shades of gray of a tomb with a coffin resting on top of four sphinx statues inside. A short side of the coffin faces us, with pair of human feet visible inside and a statue of an owl sitting atop the coffin.

Tomb with Sphinxes and an Owl

c. 1779–84

Louis Jean Desprez

(French, 1743–1804)
France, 18th century
aquatint with etching
Platemark: 34 x 48.7 cm (13 3/8 x 19 3/16 in.); Sheet: 35 x 50.3 cm (13 3/4 x 19 13/16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2018.207
Catalogue raisonné: Wollin 28
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The growing popularity of Egypt in the late 18th century, bolstered by Napoleon Bonaparte’s ultimately failed attempt to colonize the country, ensured a ready market for the subject of Louis Jean Desprez's print.

Description

Originally trained as an architect, Louis Jean Desprez produced this print depicting a tomb while living in Rome. He combined details observed while visiting catacombs in southern Italy with macabre inventions, such as the pair of feet visible from within the sculptural space. Desprez creatively used aquatint—a printmaking technique that produces shades of gray—to render the space’s dramatic shadows and stone surfaces.
  • 2018
    (Galerie Gerda Bassenge, Berlin, Germany, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
    2018-
    Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Wollin, Nils G. Gravures originales de Desprez ou exécutées d'après dessins. Malmö: J. Kroon, 1933. Mentioned: p. 57, no. 28 (as Tombeau c); Reproduced: p. 146
    Peters, Emily and Salsbury, Britany. “Acquisitions 2018: Prints and Drawings.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine vol. 59, no. 2 (March/April 2019): 20-23. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 22.
  • Imagination in the Age of Reason. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 28, 2024-March 2, 2025).
    Egyptomania: Fashion’s Conflicted Obsession. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 1, 2023-January 28, 2024).
  • {{cite web|title=Tomb with Sphinxes and an Owl|url=false|author=Louis Jean Desprez|year=c. 1779–84|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2018.207