This energetic study is one of several Vincent executed envisioning the Battle of the Pyramids, which took place during Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. Lucien Bonaparte, minister of the interior and Napoleon’s younger brother, commissioned the subject in 1800 as part of a series of six large canvases depicting battles, each by a different artist. Although Vincent never completed the painting, this drawing conveys his powerful conception of the scene, contrasting a roiling, chaotic mass of horses and Mamluk soldiers of the Egyptian military with the opposing orderly rows of French troops as they clash on the banks of the Nile.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Battle of the Pyramids, July 21, 1798
Artist:François André Vincent (French, Paris 1746–1816 Paris)
Former Attribution:Formerly attributed to baron Antoine Jean Gros (French, Paris 1771–1835 Meudon)
Date:ca. 1800
Medium:Pen and black ink, brush and brown wash, heightened with white on beige washed paper; squared in graphite
Dimensions:15 3/4 x 29 1/2 in. (41.8 x 75.1 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1951
Accession Number:51.122
Major General Edward James Montagu-Stuart-Wortley (British)according to vendor.; Vendor: Tooth & Sons (British)& Sons Ltd.
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," June 13–September 11, 2011.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours. "François-André Vincent," October 18, 2013–January 19, 2014.
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "In the Orbit of Jacques Louis David: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints," January 20–May 31, 2022.
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