?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
PAUL PHILIPPOTEAUX Pyramids at Sunset, Egypt.
Oil on paper mounted on board, circa 1885. 252x327 mm; 9⅞x12⅞ inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto.
Provenance: Sotheby's Arcade, New York, July 15, 2004, lot 44; private collection, New Jersey.
Philippoteaux (1846-1923) was born in Paris, the son of French artist Henri Emmanuel Félix Philippoteaux. He studied with his father, specializing in battle scenes and history painting. In 1865, he gained admission to the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris as a student of Leon Cogniet (1794-1880) and Alexander Cabanal (1823-1889). From 1866 to 1867, Philippoteaux exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Français.
Perhaps most well-known for his cyclorama illustrating the Battle of Gettysburg, in the collection of Gettysburg National Military Park, and his drawings for Jules Verne's novel Hector Servadac ( or Off on a Comet), Philippoteaux additionally made many trips to Egypt, garnering attention for his Orientalist paintings. Philippoteaux settled in Cairo from 1883 to 1885 and his fascination with Egypt was indicative of a larger "Egyptomania" that gripped France in the 19th century. Napoleon Bonaparte's military campaign in North Africa included the looting of ancient Egyptian artifacts, and the lavish publication of the expedition's findings led to an enthusiastic embrace of Egyptian motifs by the elite classes. Stone sphinxes were set up along the banks of the Seine, gilded pharaonic figures decorated Napoleon's furniture, and paintings like the present work were especially sought after.
