| The Battle of Aboukir | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Antoine-Jean Gros |
| Year | 1806 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 578 cm× 968 cm(228 in× 381 in) |
| Location | Palace of Versailles, Versailles |
The Battle of Aboukir is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1806 by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. It has the large dimensions of 578 by 968 cm. It is held at the Palace of Versailles.
The painting depicts the battle of Aboukir that took place on 25 July 1799, when the outnumbered French Army led by Napoleon was able to defeat the Ottoman Empire Army and their British allies in Egypt. At the center of the composition is the French general Joachim Murat, riding a white horse and holding high his sword, in a scene of bloody carnage near the sea. To his right, the Turkish pasha presents him with his sword as a sign of surrendering. In the background are a fortress and some ships on the sea. [1]
The dramatism of the scene represents a radical departure of the way battles were depicted in neoclassical painting: it is already a romantic scene, and this and other paintings by Gros had a strong influence in the development of the work of fellow French painters Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix. [2]
The painting was commissioned from Gros by Joachim Murat, and executed in 1806. It was in the National Palace of Naples in 1808, and was bought by the Musée du Luxembourg in 1833. Since 1835 it is part of the art collection of the Palace of Versailles. [3] A small sketch for the painting is held at the Detroit Institute of Arts. [4]
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style. Although he considered himself a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, it is his portraits, both painted and drawn, that are recognized as his greatest legacy. His expressive distortions of form and space made him an important precursor of modern art, influencing Picasso, Matisse and other modernists.
Charles Le Brun was a French painter, physiognomist, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. As court painter to Louis XIV, who declared him "the greatest French artist of all time", he was a dominant figure in 17th-century French art and much influenced by Nicolas Poussin.
François Rude was a French sculptor, best known for the Departure of the Volunteers, also known as La Marseillaise on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (1835–36). His work often expressed patriotic themes, as well as the transition from neo-classicism to romanticism.
Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a French painter and lithographer, whose best-known painting is The Raft of the Medusa. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of the Romantic movement.
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson, also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet, was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David, who participated in the early Romantic movement by including elements of eroticism in his paintings. Girodet is remembered for his precise and clear style and for his paintings of members of the Napoleonic family.
Jean-Baptiste Regnault was a French painter.
Antoine-Jean Gros was a French painter of historical subjects. He was given the title of Baron Gros in 1824.
Théodore Chassériau was a Dominican-born French Romantic painter noted for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Algeria. Early in his career he painted in a Neoclassical style close to that of his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, but in his later works he was strongly influenced by the Romantic style of Eugène Delacroix. He was a prolific draftsman, and made a suite of prints to illustrate Shakespeare's Othello. The portrait he painted at the age of 15 of Prosper Marilhat, makes Théodore Chassériau the youngest painter exhibited at the Louvre museum.
Louis-François, Baron Lejeune was a French general, painter, and lithographer. His memoirs have frequently been republished and his name is engraved on the Arc de Triomphe.
The Battle of Abukir was a battle in which Napoleon Bonaparte defeated Seid Mustafa Pasha's Ottoman army on 25 July 1799, during the French campaign in Egypt. It is considered the first pitched battle with this name, as there already had been a naval battle on 1 August 1798, the Battle of the Nile. No sooner had the French forces returned from a campaign to Syria, than the Ottoman forces were transported to Egypt by Sidney Smith's British fleet to put an end to French rule in Egypt.
Adam Frans van der Meulen or Adam-François van der Meulen was a Flemish painter and draughtsman who was particularly known for his scenes of military campaigns and conquests. Van der Meulen also painted portraits, hunting scenes, paintings of chateaux and landscapes. He created designs for prints and cartoons for tapestries.
The Palais Rohan in Strasbourg is the former residence of the prince-bishops and cardinals of the House of Rohan, an ancient French noble family originally from Brittany. It is a major architectural, historical, and cultural landmark in the city. It was built next to Strasbourg Cathedral in the 1730s, from designs by Robert de Cotte, and is considered a masterpiece of French Baroque architecture. Since its completion in 1742, the palace has hosted a number of French monarchs such as Louis XV, Marie Antoinette, Napoleon and Joséphine, and Charles X.
Louis Candide Boulanger was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes.
Napoleon I on his Imperial Throne is an 1806 portrait of Napoleon I of France in his coronation costume, painted by the French painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
Bonaparte at the Pont d’Arcole is an oil-on-canvas painting executed in 1796 by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros. It depicts an episode during the Battle of Arcole in November 1796, with General Napoleon Bonaparte leading his troops to storm the bridge.
Roger Freeing Angelica or Ruggiero Freeing Angelica is an 1819 painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, inspired by Orlando Furioso by Ariosto. An oil painting on canvas measuring 147 x 199 cm, it is owned by the Louvre. Ingres subsequently painted several variants of the composition.
Eugène Lepoittevin, also known as Poidevin, Poitevin, and Le Poittevin, was a French artist who achieved an early and lifelong success as a landscape and maritime painter. His work ranged from erotic caricatures to massive battle scenes. His works are in the collections of many museums throughout France. He made many paintings set in and around the fishing village of Étretat, and in 2020 he was the subject of an exhibition and book, L'invention d'Étretat: Eugène Le Poittevin, un peintre et ses amis à l'aube de l'impressionnisme.
Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau is an oil painting of 1808 by French Romantic painter Antoine-Jean Gros. Completed during the winter of 1807–1808, the work became an icon of the emerging style of French Romanticism. It depicts a moment from the aftermath of the bloody Battle of Eylau in which Napoléon Bonaparte surveys the battlefield where his Grande Armée secured a costly victory against the Russians. Although Napoleon on the Battlefield of Eylau retains elements of history painting, it is by far Gros's most realistic work depicting Napoleon and breaks from the subtlety of Neoclassicism. The painting is housed at the Louvre in Paris.
Guillaume François-Gabriel Lépaulle was a French painter associated with the Barbizon school. He painted landscapes historical works and genre scenes, although his best known works are portraits.
The Battle of Nazareth is an oil on canvas painting by French painter Antoine-Jean Gros, from 1801. It represents the French Army, led by General Andoche Junot, in a battle where he defeated the Turkish army during the Egyptian campaign of Napoleon. It is held at the Musée d'Arts de Nantes.