Le Général Bonaparte au Caire, ébauche

This intimate and expressive oil sketch by Jean-Leon Gérôme was likely abandoned by the artist after the face of the rider was painted. What we see is the underpainting for the intended composition. Though only cursorily executed, it clearly resembles the well-known painting by Gérôme at California’s Hearst Castle, depicting Napoleon Bonaparte on horseback as he surveys the city of Cairo. Rather than a first attempt or study for this larger composition, however, this painting was likely conceived as an independent work, related to a subject which Gérôme was drawn to.

In the 1860s, Gérôme began an ambitious series of four historical paintings featuring Napoleon in Egypt. This sketch likely dates from this period, and may have been executed shortly after Gérôme’s second trip to Egypt in 1862. In addition to the Hearst painting, it also resembles a landscape sketch that the artist made on site during that year, while en route to Syria. The landscape was used for the background of the Hearst work, and features a mosque on the slope of a hill. In the present painting, the mosque is retained and there is a similar fluidity and freshness to the application of paint, despite the fact that it was likely executed in the artist’s Paris studio.

Gérôme regularly experimented with his compositions, repeating and reimagining favorite motifs. This process resulted in the creation of successful finished works, as well as unfinished compositions such as this. The artist’s decision to focus attention on Napoleon on horseback, rather than, as in the Hearst painting, the panoramic view of the city below, may have been deemed unsatisfactory, or he may have set the canvas aside as one to revisit. In either case, it demonstrates the ever-working mind of Gérôme as he painted, and his consistent pursuit of perfection.

Napoleon’s arrival in Egypt was history-making from the start. Having decided that Europe had nothing left to offer in terms of celebrity and power, Napoleon was determined to establish French control over the country, disrupt access to India, and halt British colonial expansion in the Middle East. Accompanying the impressive army of 40,000 French soldiers recruited for his cause was the newly formed Scientific and Artistic Commission, headed by the artists Vivant Denon and Pascal Coste. They, along with a team of over 150 scholars and scientists, the savants, set out to record all aspects of ancient and modern Egypt, including its natural history, for the first time in the visual arts. The official publication of the Commission, the Description de l’Égypte, was published in Paris between 1809 and 1828 in multiple, lavishly illustrated folio volumes. It would become the single most influential resource for artists, architects, and designers in the early to mid- nineteenth century, including Gérôme, and the greatest success of Napoleon’s otherwise ill-fated campaign.

Interest in Napoleonic subject matter had peaked in France in the early 1860s due to the upcoming centenary of Napoleon’s birth (this would be in 1869), and the declaration of the Second Empire in 1852, which had inspired a nostalgic look at the past. The romanticizing in the popular imagination of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign of 1798-99 made it an obvious choice for artists working both independently and for the new regime. This was especially true for Gérôme, who was both an accomplished history painter, a Napoleon enthusiast, and the leading Orientalist of the day. More than two centuries later, the appeal of his Napoleon series has proven undiminished, inspiring epic Hollywood films as recently as 2023.

In the 2000 catalogue raisonné for Gérôme compiled by the late Gerald Ackerman, this painting is incorrectly listed as a studio work and its provenance differs. A letter of authentication from Emily M. Weeks, Ph.D. accompanies this painting, and the work will be included with a full attribution in her revision to the Jean-Léon Gérôme catalogue raisonné, currently in preparation. We are grateful to Dr. Weeks for her contribution of this catalogue note.