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Egyptian Family (Sketch for "The Battle of the Pyramids")
Also known as: Lateral panel for the "Bataille des Pyramides": Native Family
About the Artwork
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.
Provenance
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.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Antoine-Jean Gros (French, 1771–1835)
- Date
- c. 1835
- Medium
- oil on linen
- Dimensions
- 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.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- Painting
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Accession no.
- 1972.17.2
More by Antoine-Jean Gros in museum collections
General Jean-Baptiste Kléber and Egyptian Family (Sketches for "The Battle of the Pyramids")
Antoine-Jean Grosc. 1835 · Painting
General Jean-Baptiste Kléber (Sketch for "The Battle of the Pyramids")
Antoine-Jean Grosc. 1835 · Painting
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Open-access museum record · AT-00009327
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