About the Artwork
Antoine-Jean Gros, who came of age during the French Revolution, was fascinated by battle themes. Given permission, in the 1790s, to travel with Napoleon Bonaparte’s army, he spent several years producing large paintings celebrating the victories of the French army. In this violent depiction of the Battle of Abukir, near the coast of Egypt, Seid Mustafa Pasha’s troops are in disarray and the defeated Ottoman leader offers his sword to the French general Joachim Murat, who sits astride a rearing white horse. This quickly rendered painting is a preliminary oil sketch in which Gros worked out final details for a much larger, more finished work that is now in Versailles.
Murat Defeating the Turkish Army at Aboukir
ca. 1805
Antoine Jean Gros
1771-1835
French
Unknown
Oil on canvas, mounted on board
Unframed: 34 3/4 × 54 1/2 inches (88.3 × 138.4 cm) Framed: 44 3/4 × 64 3/4 × 3 3/8 inches (113.7 × 164.5 × 8.6 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb
49.337
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
Signed, on rock, in left center foreground: Gros
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Provenance
May 21,1828, sold by (anonymous auction, Lebrun, rue de Cléry, Paris, France)
1846, purchased by (Galerie des beaux-arts, boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, Paris, France) lot 37
1846, purchased by Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot
February 20, 1847, sold by (Hôtel des Ventes Mobilières, Paris, France) lot 21
1847-1935, purchased by Marie-Jean-Pierre-Hubert, duc de Cambacérès [1798-1881] (Paris, France)
1935-1949, Edouard Napoleon César Edmond Mortier, duc de Trévise (Paris, France)
1949, sold by (Julius Weitzner, New York, New York, USA)
1949-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Denon, V. Voyages dans la Basse et La Haute Egypte pendant les campagnes du général Bonaparte. Paris, 1802, pp. 219-220, 272-274.
Explication des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture et gravure des artistes vivants. Paris, September 15, 1806, no. 241, pp. 43-45.
Clarac, F. de. "Lettres sur le Salon de 1806." Archives littéraires de l'Europe 12. Paris, 1806, pp. 71-84.
Fabré, Victorin. "Salon de 1806." Revue philosophique, ancien décade, quatrième décade. Paris, 1806, pp. 95-98.
"Salon de 1806." Mercure de France: journal politique, littéraire et dramatique 25. Paris, 1806, pp. 598-602.
Landon, C.P. Annales du Musée et de l'école moderne des beaux-arts 3. Paris, 1807, pp. 9-14, pl. 15.
Chaussard, P. Le Pausanias français; état des art du dessin en France . . .Salon de 1806 . . . publié par un observateur impartial. Paris, 1808, pp. 71-84.
Girodet de Roucy-Trioson, A.L. "Combat d'Aboukir par M. Gros." Oeuvres posthumes 2. Paris, 1829, pp. 464-468.
Explication des ouvrages de peinture exposés dans la Galerie des Beaux-Arts, boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, 22, au profit de la caisse de secours et pensions de la Société des Artists, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, Architectes et Dessinateurs. Paris, 1846, no. 37. [Esquisse (sketch) of the painting belonging to M. Odiot.]
Delacroix, E. "Peintures et sculptures modernes, III: Gros." Revue des Deux Mondes 23 (September 1848): pp. 659-662, 665.
Delécluze, M.E.J. Louis David, son école et son temps. Paris, 1855, pp. 291, 295-296, 299.
Chesneau, E. Le mouvement moderne en peinture. Vol. 3, Gros. Paris, 1861, pp. 11-15, 28.
Blanc, Charles. Histoire des peintres. Vol. 3, école française. Paris, 1863, pp. 11-15, 28.
Delestre, J.B. Gros et ses ouvrages ou mémoires historiques sur la vie et les travaux de ce célèbre artiste. Paris, 1867, pp. 99-125.
Tripier-Le Franc, L. Histoire de la vie et de la mort du baron Gros. Paris, 1880, pp. 229-236, 673.
Dargenty, G. "Les chefs-d'oeuvre de Gros." L'Art 41 (1886): pp. 122-125.
Dargenty, G. Le Baron Gros. Paris, 1887, pp. 27-36.
Alexandre, Arsène. Histoire de la peinture militaire en France. Paris, 1889, pp. 147-149.
Benoît, F. L'Art français. Paris, 1897, p. 435.
Rosenthal, L. La peinture romantique Paris, 1900, pp. 28-32.
Lemonnier, H. Gros. Paris, 1905, pp. 35-37.
Schneider, R. Quatremère de Quincy et son intervention dans Les Arts (1788-1830) Paris, 1910, p. 265.
Delacroix, E. "Le Baron Gros." Oeuvres littéraires, vol. 3. Paris, 1923, pp. 173-174.
Montgailhard, D. de. Les artistes toulousaines et l'art à Toulouse au XIX Siècle, vol. 1. Toulouse, 1924, pp. 15-17.
Escholier, R. Gros, ses amis et ses élevés, Paris, 1936, pp. 10-11.
Lelièvre, P. "Gros, peintre d'histoire." Gazette des Beaux-Arts, series 6, vol. 15 (May 1936): pp. 296-297.
Barnard, G. and Y. Sjöberg. Gros, ses amis et ses élèves. Exh. cat., Musée du Petit Palais. Paris, 1936, pp. 64-65, cat. 38. [lent by the duc de Trévise.]
Kahn, M. Bonaparte en Egypte. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. Paris, 1938, p. 28, cat. 95.
Pach, W. Gros, Géricault, Delacroix. Exh. cat., M. Knoedler & Co. New York. 1938, p. 22 cat. 5, pl. 5. [lent by the duc de Trévise.]
McCann Morley, G.L. French Romantic Artists: Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors by Gros, Gericault, Delacroix. Exh. cat., San Francisco Museum of Art. San Francisco, 1939, p. 13, cat. 4, pl. 4 [lent by the duc de Trévise.]
Bausman, A.K. The Romantic Revolt: Gros, Gericault, Delacroix, Daumier, Guys. Exh. cat., Springfield Museum of Fine Arts. Springfield, 1939, cat. 2. [lent by the duc de Trévise.]
Pach, W. European and American Paintings 1500-1900. Exh. cat., New York World's Fair. New York, 1940, p. 161, cat. 230. [lent by the duc de Trévise.]
Grigaut, P.L. "A Romantic Sketch by Baron Gros: Murat at Aboukir." Bulletin of the DIA 29, no.1, 1949, pp. 6-11 (ill.).
"Acquisitions." Pallas 14, no. 3 (February 17, 1950): p. 26.
Delestre, G. Antoine-Jean Gros, collection des maîtres. Paris, 1951, pl. 35.
Cunningham, C.C. The Romantic Circle. Exh. cat., Wadsworth Atheneum. Hartford, 1952, cat. 4.
Richardson, E.P. Catalogue of the Paintings and Sculpture given by Edgar B. Whitcomb and Anna Scripps Whitcomb to the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1954, p. 83.
Bazin, G. Capolavori della pittura francese dell'Ottocento. Exh. cat., Palazzo della Esposizioni and Palazzo Strozzi. Rome and Florence, 1955, cat. 55 (fig. 17).
Seligmann, G. and H.S. Francis. Baron Antoine-Jean Gros (1771-1835): Painter of Battles, The First Romantic Painter. Exh. cat., J. Seligmann & Co., the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and the Cleveland Museum of Art. New York, Minneapolis, and Cleveland, 1955, p. 35, cat. 13.
The Romantic Movement. Exh. cat., Tate Gallery. London, 1959, pp. 155-156, cat. 200.
Herold, J.C. Bonaparte in Egypt. London, 1962, pp. 318-321 (ill.) p. 309.
Schlenoff, N. "Baron Gros and Napoleon's Egyptian Campaigns." Essays in Honor of Walter Friedlaender. New York, 1965, pp. 152-164, pp. 163-164 (fig. 11).
Bazin, G. "Antoine-Jean Gros." Kindlers Malereilexikon. Zürich, 1965, p. 779.
Coley, C.G. The Romantic Era, Birth and Flowering, 1750-1850. Exh. cat., John Herron Museum of Art. Indianapolis, 1965, cat. 27 (ill.).
Serullaz, M. and A. Calvet. Baudelaire. Exh. cat., Musée du Petit Palais. Paris, 1968, p. 37, cat. 164.
Taggart, R.E. "The Taste of Napoleon." The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum Bulletin. 4, no. 10 (1969): pp. 43-45, cat. 26.
Reflections of an Era of Change. Exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art. Ann Arbor, 1975, cat. 33 (ill.).
G. Courbet. Paris, 1968, no. 164.
Handbook of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1971, p. 153.
Huyghe, René, La relève de l'imaginaire. Paris, 1976, pp. 124-125 (fig. 132).
Lichtenstein, S. "The Baron Gros and Raphael." Art Bulletin 60 (1978): pp. 126-138, pp. 131-132 (fig. 8).
The Figure in 19th Century French Painting. Exh. cat., Flint Institute of Arts, et al. Flint, 1978, pp. 22-23, cat. 4 (ill.).
All the Banners Wave, Art and War in the Romantic Era, 1792-1851. Exh. cat., Bell Art Gallery, List Art Center, Brown University. Providence, 1982, pp. 78-80, cat. 25 (ill.).
The Romance of the Near East in Western Painting from Delacroix to Matisse. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1984, p. 165, cat. 50 (ill.).
Masterpieces from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Bunkamura Museum of Art, et al. Tokyo, 1989, pp. 84, pp. 217-218, cat. 52 (ill.).
Le Baron Taylor, l'Association des artistes et l'Exposition du Bazar Bonne-Nouvelle en 1846. Paris, 1995, p. 34, no.37, pp. 77, 111, 169, 211 cat. 45.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Antoine Jean Gros, Murat Defeating the Turkish Army at Aboukir, ca. 1805, oil on canvas, mounted on board. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Mr. and Mrs. Edgar B. Whitcomb, 49.337.
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