Lot Essay
Exhibited at the Salon of 1897, Gèrôme's equestrian sculpture, Napoléon entrant au Caire, was originally conceived as a commemoration of Bonaparte's military victories in his Middle Eastern campaigns, which took place almost a century earlier and culminated in his arrival in the Egyptian capital on 12 July 1798. Unusually, in that it only purchased unique works not to be reproduced, the original, brown-patinated bronze, eighty-three centimetres high, was acquired by the French government for the galerie du Luxembourg. In this case, Gérôme had already made a prior agreement with Siot-Decauville, who edited the bronze in two further sizes - the present size and one of forty-one centimetres (see lot 248, sold in these Rooms, 19 October 1995).