11/24/2008 10:25:00 AM Napoleonic dreams of glory take over the Frye
Edwin Longsden Long, "Love’s Labour Lost,” 1885.
By Steven Vroom
In 1795, after a series of upheavals that ended the lives of Robespierre and St. Just and the reign of terror, a shaky constitutional government known as the Directory sought to stabilize France with new military victories and conquests abroad. The politicians turned to their most successful general, a young Corsican named Napoleon Bonaparte, to lead an invasion of Egypt. On July 1, 1798 the French war ship L'Orient appeared off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Aboard with General Bonaparte were 150 scientists, engineers and artists. The fruits of their labors are now on display through January 4 at the Frye Art Museum.
The research was assembled into the "Description de l'...gypte," a massive, encyclopedic compendium published between 1809 and 1828. The first edition was composed of 10 volumes of text and 13 volumes of engraved plates. The Frye exhibition has more than 80 plates from the "Description de l'...gypte" that were created in the true French Encyclopedia fashion. Like the plates from Pompeii, the images from this folio were distributed to academies in both Europe and the United States. Also on view are vivid 19th-century Orientalist paintings influenced by those illustrations, and a selection of campaign letters and documents all of which shaped the west's enduring image of the Egypt.
Napoleon was no stranger to the power that visual art holds politically. He personally intervened when the Directory had imprisoned the leading artist of the day, Jacques-Louis David, and thus earned the loyalty of David and his atelier. It was from this group that the artists for the expedition were selected. The two prime examples of Napoleonic myth-making are found in a photogravure from a painting by Gerome of "Napoleon at Cairo" and an engraving after Baron Antoine-Jean Gros' painting "Napoleon at the Plague House in Jaffa," created in 1804.
The prints are divided into three sections: Ancient Egypt, Modern Egypt and Natural History. The ancient section is considered the foundational document for the basis of Egyptology, which emerged as an area of study in the 19th century. Plates by Jean-Baptiste Lepère, Charles-Louis Balzac and a very meticulous copying of a Papyrus Manuscript with Hieroglyphic Characters from Thebes by Pierre Simonel all serve as source material for later works by artists from major art academic centers in Berlin, Munich, Paris and London.
The Modern Egypt section reflects the Napoleonic obsession for centralized governmental control over the administration of local authorities. Jean Constantin Protain, Jean Collin, Charles-Louis Balzac and François-Charles Cécile provide views of the streets of Cairo and Alexandria. There are illustrations of two machines for irrigation, astrolabes, vases, baskets, lanterns, pipes and coins. And the range of detail is simply dizzying.
The Natural History section offers both botanic and ethnographic studies. ...tienne Geoffroy Sainte-Hilaire, Henri-Joseph Redouté, Alire Raffeneau-Delile and Jules-César Savigny render the natural world with scientific precision. This section will appeal to the avid gardener and to anyone interested in zoology.
There are maps, military orders of the day, coins and letters from Napoleon himself. The military adventure was cut short by British Admiral Horatio Nelson, who decimated the entire French fleet in the Bay of Aboukir. Unrest in Paris prompted Napoleon's clandestine departure from Egypt, though he would eventually become the imperial dictator of all France.
The visual influence of the folio is perhaps best seen in a stunning 1885 canvas by Edwin Longsden Long. Titled "Love's Labour Lost." Measuring 67.5 x 92 inches, a central seated figure stares out at the viewer surrounded by an interior peppered with Egyptian iconography. To the right, a slave reclines on the ornate floor at such an extreme angle that it seems to be a compositional quotation from the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio with the radical foreshortening of the arm and torso. To the left, a Nubian strums a lyre with another slave seated holding a small wooden doll. Completing the compositional pyramid is a standing slave with a basket filled with more dolls.
The motif of the painting quotes elements from the French print folio with objects, wall patterns, rugs, animals and jewelry. This work is a bravura performance from a member of the Royal Academy.
The two problems with the exhibition have nothing to do with the art itself but with the historical myopia of the curators. Organizing curator Lisa Small shows a British historical bias by including satiric anti-Napoleon propaganda prints of William Craig and James Gillray. And Frye curator Robin Held confuses cause with consequence when she tries to relate a 20th- century concept - colonialism - with the actions of late 18th-century historical figures like Napoleon. But these missteps should not get in the way of enjoying a seminal and satisfying exhibition.
"Napoleon on the Nile: Soldiers, Artists,
and the Rediscovery of Egypt"
continues through Jan. 4,
Frye Art Museum, 704 Terry Ave.
Museum hours are 10 a.m. -5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturdays, with extended Thursday hours until 8 p.m. and Sundays hours from noon to 5 p.m. Admission and parking are free.
Steven Vroom writes about the visual arts monthly for the Capitol Hill Times. He is the host of the visual art pod cast "Art Radio Seattle" at www.VroomJournal.com He can be reached at editor@capitolhilltimes.com.
