Sketch for The Revolt of Cairo
Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (French, 1767-1824)
c. 1810
View the original$19
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Materials & printing
Archival matte paper, 189 g/m² (10.3 mil), sourced from Japan, printed with multicolor water-based inkjet so every brushstroke stays crisp. Framed prints arrive ready to hang in a .75″ ayous-wood frame with an acrylite front. Sized to standard frames by cropping, never stretching — at most about 3% comes off one edge, which isn’t noticeable on most pieces, and we only offer a size when it stays that small.
Shipping & returns
Made to order and delivered in 5–8 business days (2–4 to print, 3–4 in transit). US shipping only for now. Because each print is made for your order, all sales are final — but if it arrives damaged or defective, send us a photo within 14 days and we’ll replace it free. Full policy.
Why is it this affordable?
A thin, flat margin on every piece — just enough to keep the store running. Most of what you pay is the print itself. We only sell sizes that reproduce at full quality, and we don’t mark up the large sizes the way most shops do.
About this work
This is a preparatory sketch for a monumental painting depicting one of the bloodiest moments of Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt: the suppression of an uprising in Cairo. The conflict included a massacre in the Al-Azhar Mosque of Mamelukes, a military class of enslaved men who occupied much of the Middle East at that time. As there were no surviving eyewitness reports, Girodet was free to interpret the event as he wished, and, as a commission from Napoleon, the painting celebrates the French point of view. Throughout the work, Girodet perpetuates European fantasies of the Middle East as simultaneously opulent and brutal, lavishing attention on Arab and Ottoman turbans, luxurious fabrics, bare flesh, and gore.
- Medium
- Oil and ink on paper, laid down on canvas
- Original size
- 30.8 × 45.1 cm (12 1/8 × 17 3/4 in.)
Museum record · 4 owners · 1 exhibition
Provenance
- The artist’s studio, estate inventory, April 11, 1825.
- Girodet Sale, Paris, April 11, 1825, lot 17; sold for 2,850 francs to Jacobs.
- Joseph Basile Ducos; sold Paris, December 18, 1837, lot 18.
- Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 25, 1987, lot 37; sold to Galerie Charles Ratton-Guy Ladrière, Paris; sold to Richard L. Feigen & Co., New York by 1999; sold to the Art Institute, 1999.
Exhibitions
- Paris, Musée du Louvre, Girodet 1767-1824, September 22, 2005-January 2, 2006; traveled to Chicago, Art Institute, February 11-April 30, 2006; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 24-August 27, 2006; Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts, October 12, 2006-January 21, 2007, ill.
