Jean-Léon Gérôme

Prince Paul Murat collection, 1902
Thence by descent

Paris, Salon de 1897, p. 285, no. 2987
G. Sheffer, Le Salon de 1897, Paris, 1897, p. 58-59
G. Lafenestre, Les Salons de 1897, La Revue des Deux Mondes, Paris, July 1, p. 177-191, p. 178
Cat. Jean-Léon Gérôme 1824-1904. Peintre, sculpteur et graveur. Ses Oeuvres conservées dans les collections françaises publiques et privées, Vesoul, 1981, p. 150, n° 189
Cat. Panama Pacific International Exposition, Retrospective Sculpture, San Francisco, 1915, n° 86
S. Lami, Dictionnaire des Sculpteurs de l'école française au XIXe siècle, Paris, 1919, t. 3, p. 56
Les Archives Murat aux archives nationales, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1967, p. 209
Cat. Jean-Léon Gérôme, Sculpteur et peintre de l'Art Officiel, Paris, Galerie Tanagra, April 25 - Mai 15, 1974, p. 44, n° 15

This important piece celebrating Bonaparte's military victories depicts the mounted general entering Cairo on July 21, 1798.  The sculpture is mounted on a wood and gilt bronze temple with a seated Egyptian scribe at its base. The armed Victory figure emerges from this temple. Between the columns, we can read the future Emperor's collaborators' names: Menou, Berthollet, Fourier; Lannes, Larrey, Murat; Kléber, Denon, Reynier; Desaix, Monge, Baraguay d'Hilliers. His victories are inscribed along the entablature: Gaza, Jaffa; Le Mont Thabor, Aboukir; Alexandrie, Les Pyramides; Le Caire et El Arish.

The original monument was exhibited in Paris, in the Salon of 1894 (n° 2987) and described as Bonaparte - Entrée au Caire. Immediately it was purchased by the French state for the Luxembourg museum. There are numerous bronze replicas, cast by Siot-Decauville in two different sizes (16 1/4  in. and 32 2/3  in.) but only a few versions of the present model are known.  A version was sold in the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Collection sale at Sotheby's New York, on May 26, 1994. That cast was dedicated to Mr Maxime Duval (1984-1912), deputy director of the Société Générale, who was promoted as administrator in 1903. It seems that a third cast was exhibited in London at the Franco British Exhibition in 1908 (n° 950).

The present work was purchased in 1902 by Murat under the name Campagne d'Egypte and descended through his family.