| The Battle of Alexandria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Philip James de Loutherbourg |
| Year | 1802 |
| Type | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 106.60 cm× 152.60 cm(41.97 in× 60.08 in) |
| Location | Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
The Battle of Alexandria is an oil on canvas history painting by the French-born British artist Philip James de Loutherbourg, from 1802. It is held at the Scottish National Gallery, in Edinburgh.
The artist was well known for his scenes of naval and land battles. He set this work around the Battle of Alexandria in March 1801, when a British army allied to the Ottoman Empire successfully defeated French forces who had launched an Invasion of Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte three years earlier.
Reminiscent of the battle scenes popularised by Benjamin West's Death of General Wolfe thirty years earlier, the painting focuses on the British high command while the battle rages in the background. [1] The British commander Ralph Abercromby, an experienced Scottish general, has been fatally wounded and is shown slumped back. [2] Gathered around him are various other senior officers including his successor the Irish general John Hely-Hutchinson as well as Robert Anstruther, John Moore, John Abercromby, Lord Ludlow, Eyre Coote and the naval officer Sir Sidney Smith. [3] Hely-Hutchinson succeeded him as commander and oversaw the successful Siege of Cairo that ended with a complete French surrender in Egypt.
It is now in the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland, having been purchased in 1986. [4] Another artist Charles Orme also notably depicted the battle. [5]
Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby, was a Scottish soldier and politician. He rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the British Army, was appointed Governor of Trinidad, served as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, and was noted for his services during the French Revolutionary Wars, ultimately in the Egyptian campaign. His strategies are ranked amongst the most daring and brilliant exploits of the British army.
The Battle of Alexandria, or Battle of Canope, was fought on 21 March 1801 between the army of Napoleon's French First Republic under General Jacques-François Menou and the British expeditionary corps under Sir Ralph Abercromby. The battle took place near the ruins of Nicopolis, on the narrow spit of land between the sea and Lake Abukir, along which the British troops had advanced towards Alexandria after the actions of Abukir on 8 March and Mandora on 13 March. The fighting was part of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria against the Ottoman Empire, which began in 1798.
A victory title is an honorific title adopted by a successful military commander to commemorate his defeat of an enemy nation. The practice is first known in Ancient Rome and is still most commonly associated with the Romans, but it was also adopted as a practice by many later empires, especially the French, British and Russian Empires.
Murad Bey Mohammed was an Egyptian Mamluk chieftain (Bey), cavalry commander and joint ruler of Egypt with Ibrahim Bey. He is often remembered as being a cruel and extortionate ruler, but an energetic courageous fighter.
Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith was a British Royal Navy officer. Serving in the American and French revolutionary wars and Napoleonic Wars, he rose to the rank of Admiral.
Philip James de Loutherbourg, whose name is sometimes given in the French form of Philippe-Jacques, the German form of Philipp Jakob, or with the English-language epithet of the Younger, was a French-born British painter who became known for his large naval works, his elaborate set designs for London theatres, and his invention of a mechanical theatre called the "Eidophusikon". He also had an interest in faith-healing and the occult, and was a companion of the confidence-trickster Alessandro Cagliostro.
Eyre Coote was an Irish-born British soldier and politician who served as Governor of Jamaica. He attained the rank of general in the British Army and was created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath before being stripped of his rank and honours in 1816 after conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.
The Abū Qīr Bay is a spacious bay on the Mediterranean Sea near Alexandria in Egypt, lying between the Rosetta mouth of the Nile and the town of Abu Qir. The ancient cities of Canopus, Heracleion and Menouthis lie submerged beneath the waters of the bay. In 1798 it was the site of the Battle of the Nile, a naval battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the navy of the French First Republic. The bay contains a natural gas field, discovered in the 1970s.
Lieutenant-General Sir John Abercromby GCB was a British Army officer and Member of Parliament (MP) for Clackmannanshire from 1815 to 1817.
The French invasion of Egypt and Syria was the invasion and occupation of Ottoman territories in Egypt and Syria by French forces under the command of Napoleon during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was the primary purpose of the Mediterranean campaign of 1798, in which the French captured Malta while being followed by the British Royal Navy, whose pursuit was hampered by a lack of scouting frigates and reliable information.
General John Hely-Hutchinson, 2nd Earl of Donoughmore, GCB, KC was a British Army officer, politician and peer.
Events from the year 1801 in the United Kingdom. The Acts of Union 1800 came into force this year.
The siege of Alexandria was fought during the French Revolutionary Wars between French and British forces. It was the last action of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801). The French had occupied Alexandria, a major fortified harbour city on the Nile Delta in northern Egypt, since 2 July 1798, and the garrison there surrendered on 2 September 1801.
The Battle of Abukir of 8 March 1801 was the second pitched battle of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria to be fought at Abu Qir on the Mediterranean coast, near the Nile Delta.
Richard Caton Woodville Jr. was an English artist and illustrator, who is best known for being one of the most prolific and effective painters of battle scenes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Capitulation of Alexandria in August 1801 brought to an end the French expedition to Egypt.
The Battle of Mandora was a minor battle fought on 13 March 1801 between French forces under François Lanusse and the British expeditionary corps under Ralph Abercromby, during the French campaign in Egypt and Syria.
The siege of Cairo, also known as the Cairo campaign, was a siege that took place during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French and British with Ottoman forces and was the penultimate action of the Egyptian Campaign. British commander John Hely-Hutchinson advanced to Cairo, where he arrived after a few skirmishes in mid June. Joined by a sizeable Ottoman force Hutchinson invested Cairo and on 27 June the surrounded 13,000-strong French garrison under General Augustin Daniel Belliard, out-manned and out-gunned then surrendered. The remaining French troops in Egypt under Jacques-François Menou disheartened by this failure, retired to Alexandria.
Egypt was a battle honour awarded to units of the British and Indian armies that took part in the British expedition to Egypt under the command of General Sir Ralph Abercromby between 8 March and 26 August 1801, towards the end of the French campaign in Egypt and Syria. It was awarded to British units with the badge of the Sphinx and initially to Indian units simply as Egypt. Later, the badge of the Sphinx was taken into use by Indian units also.
The Convention of El Arish was signed on 24 January 1800 by representatives from France and the Ottoman Empire in the presence of a British representative. It was intended to bring to an end the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, with the repatriation of French troops to France and the return of all territory to the Ottomans.