Unwrapping the Mummy
Harriet Cheney
before 1825
Medium
Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 27.5 × 36.5 cm (10 7/8 × 14 3/8 in.); Sheet: 30.8 × 38.6 cm (12 3/16 × 15 1/4 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51058
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Harriet Cheney learned how to make lithographic prints under the tutelage of Dominique-Vivant Denon, the diplomat, explorer, and director of the Musée du Louvre. This print by Cheney, showing a curious gathering in Denon’s Paris apartments, was once misinterpreted as depicting the autopsy of a monkey. What is actually taking place is the unwrapping of a mummy acquired by Denon on his Egyptian travels; Harriet can be seen, midsketch, at lower left.