(Paris 1846–1923)
The Battle of the Pyramids, signed P. Philippoteaux, oil on canvas, 81 x 150 cm, framed, (GG) 

Provenance:
Ruston Pasha Collection;
by inheritance in the family collection of the current owner for more than a century;
European Private, Collection.

The Battle of the Pyramids was fought on 21 July 1798 between the French army in Egypt under Napoleon Bonaparte and local Mamluk forces. It was in this battle that Napoleon introduced one of his significant contributions to tactics, the massive divisional square. The victory of the French army paved the way to the conquest of Cairo and eventually of the whole of Egypt for Bonaparte. The present work combines an accurate portrait of Napoleon astride a white horse with a realistic depiction of the battle, featuring the French troops fighting the Mamluk forces in the centre of the composition and the Pyramids in the distance. 

Paul Dominique Philippoteaux initially trained with his father, specialising in battle scenes and history paintings, and subsequently with Alexander Cabanel (1823-1889) and Léon Cogniet (1794-1880) at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. He travelled extensively to the United States and in 1883 he executed a large-format painting depicting the Battle of Gettysburg. Philippoteaux was especially well-known for his Orientalist subjects, most of them in Cairo, where he settled in 1883.