This exhibition vividly tells the story of Napoleon’s ill-fated bid to add Egypt to the growing French empire and of how the British, who had their own colonial interests in the region to protect, ultimately thwarted this plan. As a military and colonial endeavor, the Egyptian campaign (1798–1801) was a failure, yet it paradoxically ranks among Napoleon’s most significant achievements.

In addition to his soldiers, Napoleon also brought to Egypt 150 scholars, or savants, whose project it was to systematically explore, describe, and document every aspect of the country: its ancient and modern buildings and monuments; its plants, animals, and people; its topography; and its commerce, customs, and infrastructures. Egypt was soon to become the most thoroughly mapped region on earth.

Supported by Napoleon and protected (sometimes begrudgingly) by the army, this select group of engineers, scientists, mathematicians, naturalists, and artists—called the Commission des Sciences et des Arts d’Égypte—was an integral part of the expedition. They served France’s political mission by providing the comprehensive information and skills an occupying force would need to govern and rebuild effectively. At the same time they enhanced the expedition’s ideological goals by rediscovering the wonders of Pharaonic Egyptian civilization, with which Napoleon, in his dual roles of liberator and conqueror, was happy to be associated.

The ultimate product of the Commission’s exhaustive research was the Description de l’Égypte, a massive, encyclopedic compendium published between 1809 and 1828. An unprecedented scholarly achievement, its first edition was composed of ten volumes of text and thirteen volumes of engraved plates. It is considered the foundational work of modern Egyptology.

Bringing together more than eighty plates from the Description de l’Égypte, vivid nineteenth-century Orientalist paintings that were influenced by those illustrations, and a selection of campaign letters and documents, this exhibition explores the legacy of the brief French occupation of Egypt and reveals how the interaction between military power, scientific knowledge, and artistic skills shaped the West’s enduring image of the country.

Discussion