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Framed and on the wall
Frame and rooms are illustrations of how the piece could look; it is sold unframed unless the description says otherwise.
Inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, Antique Madou Lithograph, 1827
$295
€265 · £225
Original print, not a reproduction.
Ships worldwide from the Netherlands, flat, insured and tracked. 14-day returns.
- Date
- 1827
- Technique
- Lithograph
- Coloring
- Uncolored
- Condition
- Good. Light wear to the bottom left corner; minor nicks to the left edge. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and heavier foxing across the margins. Printed image clean.
- Collection
- Battle scenes
- Era
- 1790 to 1815, Napoleonic wars
- Stock no.
- BG-14174-3-41
What the condition grades mean
- Excellent
- Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
- Very good
- Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
- Good
- Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
- Fair
- Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
An original antique lithograph of Napoleon inside the Great Pyramid, from Vie de Napoléon, published at Brussels in 1827. The sheet is lettered PYRAMIDES DE GIZEH in capitals above the image. In a stone chamber lit by flaring torches on tall poles, Bonaparte stands beside a great stone sarcophagus and gestures toward it, while barefoot torchbearers wait at the left and a company of turbaned sheikhs and French officers gathers at the right.
The printed caption below the image reads: Napoléon accompagné des chefs musulmans, visite l'intérieur de la grande pyramide. In English: Napoleon, accompanied by the Muslim leaders, visits the interior of the Great Pyramid.
Vie de Napoléon was published at Brussels in 1827 in two volumes by the Lithographie royale de Jobard, the press of Marcellin Jobard, with a text written by a society of men of letters from the new documents dictated and corrected by Napoleon himself at Saint Helena. Its lithographs are credited to Jean-Baptiste Madou (1796 to 1877), who later became the best known Belgian genre painter of his generation.
The visit belongs to the months after the battle of the Pyramids in 1798, when Bonaparte sought the support of the religious leaders of Cairo, and the plate makes the point by surrounding him with them. The torchlight falling across the sarcophagus and the robes makes this one of the most atmospheric interiors in the series. It is a crayon lithograph printed in black, uncolored as issued, with the lettered title above the image and the caption in script below.
Condition: Light wear to the bottom left corner; minor nicks to the left edge. Age toning, darker at the edges; handling soiling along the edges and heavier foxing across the margins. Printed image clean.
Hung at eye level where the caption can be read, the plate makes a natural gift for a reader of Napoleonic history or a collector of early lithography.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
