Advanced Search 
General Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken at Jaffa
1823
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
118.7 x 163.8 cm (46 3/4 x 64 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
S. A. Denio Collection—Sylvanus Adams Denio Fund
Accession Number47.1059
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In 1798-1801 a French army led by general Napoleon Bonaparte sought to conquer Egypt and expand the French colonial empire. Here, Napoleon is shown visiting a convent in Jaffa that had been transformed into a hospital to house French soldiers devastated by the plague. In this officially sanctioned depiction of the Egyptian campaign, Bonaparte is portrayed courageously touching the sore of a plague victim in an effort to quell the fear of contagion. Serving as propaganda for the military leader, this gesture evokes Christ’s power to heal the sick. Debay, a pupil of Antoine-Jean Gros, painted this smaller and brighter copy after his teacher’s enormous painting (now in the Louvre), a work commissioned by Napoleon and exhibited in Paris in 1804, the year Napoleon became Emperor of France.
DescriptionAfter a painting in the Louvre, Paris
Inscriptions118.5 x 164.0 cm. (46 3/4 x 64 1/2 in.)
Provenance1823, painted for Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (b. 1771 – d. 1935), Paris; November 23, 1835, Gros estate sale, Paris, lot 130, sold for 2050 fr. to Auguste-Hyacinthe Debay (the artist; b. 1804 – d. 1865), Paris, and sold after his death [see note 1]. Probably Edmond Guerin (b. 1846 - d. 1936), Paris [see note 2]. 1934, sold by Jean Schmidt (dealer), Paris, to Edouard Mortier (b. 1883 – d. 1946), Duc de Trevise [see note 3]; consigned by the Duc de Trevise to Robert Lebel (b. 1901– d. 1986), Paris and Julius Weitzner, New York [see note 4]; 1947, sold by Julius Weitzner to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 12, 1947)
NOTES:
[1] This is probably the painting that appeared in the 1835 Gros sale and was bought back by the artist, who exhibited it in 1846 (“Explication des Ouvrages de Peinture,” Rue Saint-Lazare 75, Paris, December 15, 1846), cat. no. 44. See Charles Blanc, Histoire des Peintres Français au dix-neuvième siècle (Paris, 1845), p. 402 and J. Tripier le Franc, Histoire de la vie et de la Mort du Baron Gros (Paris, 1880), p. 217.
[2] A label reading "Edmond Guerin / Paris" is on the reverse of the painting's frame.
[3] According to the exhibition catalogue “Gros: Ses Amis, Ses Élèves” (Petit Palais, Paris, 1936), p. 60 (lent by the Duc de Trevise). The painting is also said to have been in an English private collection for many years.
[4] Dealer Robert Lebel, who worked with Julius Weitzner, was the agent for the Duc de Trevise collection as early as 1938.
NOTES:
[1] This is probably the painting that appeared in the 1835 Gros sale and was bought back by the artist, who exhibited it in 1846 (“Explication des Ouvrages de Peinture,” Rue Saint-Lazare 75, Paris, December 15, 1846), cat. no. 44. See Charles Blanc, Histoire des Peintres Français au dix-neuvième siècle (Paris, 1845), p. 402 and J. Tripier le Franc, Histoire de la vie et de la Mort du Baron Gros (Paris, 1880), p. 217.
[2] A label reading "Edmond Guerin / Paris" is on the reverse of the painting's frame.
[3] According to the exhibition catalogue “Gros: Ses Amis, Ses Élèves” (Petit Palais, Paris, 1936), p. 60 (lent by the Duc de Trevise). The painting is also said to have been in an English private collection for many years.
[4] Dealer Robert Lebel, who worked with Julius Weitzner, was the agent for the Duc de Trevise collection as early as 1938.