oil, canvas, 86.5 × 145.5 cm
Signed and dated l. d.: "Wojciech Kossak 1927"
"First in line, the Mamelukes fight fiercely; they are assisted in the battle by noble animals, as if aware that they are trashing their enemies... Unfortunately, a wall of steel bayonets breaks their fervor; a moment more and they will lie pierced by the invaders' weapons."
"The Battle of the Pyramids", Warsaw 1901, p.11
The painting offered at auction refers to historical events that took place during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt (l. 1789-1801). This expedition, according to the officially disseminated narrative, was supposed to liberate the Egyptian people from the Mameluke rule and give them access to the achievements of Western civilization, while in fact Napoleon's aspirations were focused on taking over the British colony in India (P. Jędryczak, R. Nowak, "The Battle of the Pyramids", Wroclaw 2021, p.5). The artist chose as his subject the battle fought on July 21, 1798 near the village of Embabech (now Imbaba). In the foreground, charging Mamelukes clash with Napoleon's army in the center of the composition, with pyramids - symbols of Egyptian culture - in the background. The whole picture was painted with great dynamism and expression.
The motif of the Battle of the Pyramids appeared in the works of Wojciech Kossak much earlier and, as it were, as a result of forcing the artist to change the subject of the planned panorama. Initially, the painter intended to show the Battle of Samosierra. However, the Tsar's governor in Warsaw, Alexander Imeretinsky, ultimately did not give his permission for such a depiction for fear that the panorama in such a form could arouse patriotic and liberationist thoughts in the hearts of Poles. It was necessary to change the subject to a more "safe" one from the point of view of the partitioning authorities, especially since the artist had already rented a rotunda in Warsaw for the presentation of the panorama in late 1900 and early 1901. Preparatory work included studies in Paris of the costumes and weapons used by the Mamelukes - Zygmunt Rozwadowski (one of the painters invited to collaborate) was delegated to this task - and topographical studies conducted by Kossak himself together with Michal Wywiórski in the vicinity of Embabech with the battle plan reconstructed by Adolphe Thiers in his 1900 study "L'expedition de Bonaparte en Egypte" (Ibid., pp. 7-8). The artist wanted to portray as faithfully as possible the region where the battle had been fought more than a century earlier. "As always in these cases, so now I decided to go to the battlefield at the same time of year, even in the same month in which it took place (...) At our feet Cairo with its minarets and domes of mosques and the Nile along which, like haystacks along the Berezina, pyramids and pyramids as far as the eyes can reach." (W. Kossak, "Memories," compiled by K. Olszanski, p. 185). The panorama depicting the Battle of the Pyramids was created in a record four months. It measured 15 x 115 meters and was publicly displayed on April 2, 1901.
In the 1927 painting on offer, as in the panorama of the same subject, the sand was shown in its actual hue for the first time. "Although the battle of the pyramids had been painted before in many paintings - it is also the subject of a panorama by Jean Charles Langlois (1853) - but everywhere there the sand was yellow and resembled that on European beaches. The reddish hue, characteristic of the Sahara, was first rendered on canvas only by Kossak and Wywiórski." (P. Jedryczak, R. Nowak, op. cit., p. 8). This composition is not a repetition of any of the scenes included in the panorama, but is a separate painterly vision of the same subject.
Additional photos:
- Wojciech Kossak against the background of the panorama Battle of the Pyramids, 1901 source: Mazovian Digital Library [accessed 4.01.2023].
- Postcard from 1906 with a reproduction of a fragment of the panorama Battle of the Pyramids by Wojciech Kossak, photo by Jadwiga Golcz (1866-1936), Source: CRISPA - University of Warsaw Digital Library [accessed 4.01.2023].
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