On the Nile
1871
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
63.8 × 110.6 cm (25 × 43 1/2 in.); Framed: 80.7 × 127 × 6.4 cm (31 3/4 × 50 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
57191
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This seemingly objective rendering of 19th-century Egypt depicts a caravan resting on the shores on the Nile. A large dahabeah, or houseboat, balances on the low horizon line. The building in the right background might be the temple at Luxor or the one at Philae, the latter of which Eugène Fromentin mentioned in the diary he kept while traveling in Egypt during the fall of 1869. Fromentin was in Egypt to witness the opening of the Suez Canal; he based this composition on sketches he made at the...