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LE PERE (delineavit) & ALLAIS (sculpsit)

DESCRIPTION DE L'EGYPTE. THEBES. Memnomium. Vue perspective intérieure coloriée du temple de l'ouest. (ANTIQUITES, volume II, planche 37)

Imprimerie Impériale, Paris 1809-1829, 53,5x71cm, une feuille.

Original etching in plano, uncropped, extracted from the so-called "Imperial" edition of the Description of Egypt or Recueil des observations et recherches faites en Égypte pendant l'expédition française [Collection of observations and research made in Egypt during the French expedition], published by order of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon the Great.
Produced between February 1802 and 1829 on the behest of Napoleon Bonaparte and published from 1809 [actually 1810], 1000 copies were printed on Vergé paper watermarked "Égypte ancienne et moderne" and offered to prominent French institutions such as the National Library of France.
Marginal foxing without any damage to the engraving and a small tear at the upper edge, otherwise in prime condition.

Produced between February 1802 and 1830 on the orders of Napoleon Bonaparte and published between 1809 and 1828, 1,000 copies were printed and distributed to institutions, on vergé paper with an 'Égypte ancienne et moderne' watermark, visible when held up to the light.

An engraving from the Description de l'Egypte, one of the masterpieces of French printing and the birth of a new field: Egyptology. A gigantic survey of Egypt at the time of Bonaparte's conquests in 1798 and 1799, the work is divided into 13 volumes of engravings making up 892 plates, of which 72 colored, as well as presenting the splendors of the Egypt of the Pharaohs in 9 volumes. The other volumes discuss natural history and present a fascinating portrait of Coptic and Islamic Egypt as it was seen by Bonaparte's Eastern Armies.

The ‘Egyptian campaign', militarily a disaster, demonstrates, through the engravings of the Description d'Egypte, the scientific success it nonetheless became thanks to the 167 expert members of the Commission of the Sciences and Arts of the Institut d'Egypte [Egyptian Institute] who followed Napoleon's army. The Institut gathered together in Egypt the mathematician Monge, the chemist Berthollet, the naturalist Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire as well as numerous artists, engineers, architects and doctors. They were tasked with re-discovering modern and ancient Egypt and displaying its natural treasures as well as the know-how of its inhabitants.

This edition, the so-called “Imperial” edition of the plates for the Description de l'Egypte was printed in four large formats, two of which were specially created for it and christened “Moyen-Egypte” and “Grand-Egypte”. A special press was built to print it, the process extending over 20 years, from 1809 to 1829. The “Imperial” edition proved so popular that a second edition, this time in black and white and without the “Egypte ancienne et moderne” watermark – known as the “Royal Edition” – was published during the Restoration by the printing house of C.-L.-F. Panckoucke (Paris).

The engravings of the Description d'Egypte owe a great deal to Baron Dominique-Vivant Denon, illustrator, diplomat, collector and later Director of the Musée Napoléon (the Louvre). His exploration of the South of Egypt gave Bonaparte the idea of sending the experts of the Institut there, thus creating a faithful and complete portrait of the area. This was the research gathered together from 1802 in the mammoth Description de L'Egypte.

Denon embarked on this story of archeological exploration at the age of 51, reaching first Alexandria and then Cairo before exploring Upper Egypt. Along with the members of the Institut d'Egypte, the Natural History Museum's painter H.J. Redouté (brother of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, author of Roses), the mineralogist Dolomiue, and the draughtsman Joly, Denon then explored the Nile Delta and Lower Egypt. When, however, he joined the 21st Light Infantry Regiment as it marched across Upper Egypt in pursuit of the retreating Mameluks in November 1798, he found himself the only civilian. In the very midst of the battle itself, he reeled off sketches of the works of art that peppered his path right up to the threshold of the Sudan. He said that he had crossed “a country that is, apart from its name, entirely unknown to Europeans, and therefore everything was worth describing” (Voyages dans la Basse et la Haute Egypte pendant les campagnes de Bonaparte en 1798 et 1799, 1817).

On his return to Cairo, the great general, spellbound by Denon's accounts and drawings ordered two commissions to be set up, led by the engineers Fourier and Costaz. They were tasked with the scientific study of the ancient remains in Upper Egypt; research that proved a significant contribution to the monumental Description d'Egypte, from which this plate is taken.

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