On the Nile

Public Domain

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

1871

Eugène Fromentin
French, 1820-1876

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 time. While Orientalism—European representations of Near Eastern and North African places and people—was beginning to wane by the time Fromentin painted this scene, the opening of the canal marked a new age of colonial imperialism.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Eugène Fromentin
Title: On the Nile
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1871
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, lower right: Eug. Fromentin, 71
Dimensions: 63.8 × 110.6 cm (25 × 43 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Nickerson Collection
Reference Number: 1900.580
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/57191/manifest.json

Handbook of the Art Institute of Chicago (1925)
Rhode Island School of Design, Yearbook (1935), 167.
Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1892-1942, exh. cat. (Portland, OR: Portland Art Museum, 1942), np. cat. 26.
Charles Crehore Cunningham, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: ARt Institute, 1961), 166-67.
MaryAnne Stevens, ed., The Orientalists: The Allure of North Africa and the Near East, exh. cat. (Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art in association with Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1984), 79 cat. 25. 135-36.
James Thompson and Barbara Wright, La vie et l’oeuvre d’Eugène Fromentin (Paris: ACR, 1987), 266, 268 (color ill.).
Hardin, Jennider, The lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited, exh. cat. (St. Petersburg, FL: Museum of Fine Arts, 1996), 5-6 cat. 10, 22 (ill.)
Gérard-Georges Lemaire, L’univers des orientalistes (Paris: Éditions Place des Victoires, 2000), 380-31 (ill.)

Art Institute of Chicago, Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Samuel M. Nickerson, February 1900, cat. 29
Rhode Island School of Design, March 1935, no cat.
Portland, Oregon Art Museum, Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition, 1892-1942, Dec. 2, 1942-Jan. 3, 1943, cat. 26.
London, Royal Academy of Art, The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse, The Allure of North Africa and the Near East, Mar. 23-May 27, 11984, cat. 25; Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, July 1-Oct. 28, 1984 [Washington only].
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago’s Dream, A World’s Treasure: The Art Institute of Chicago 1893-1993, Nov. 1, 1993-Jan. 9, 1994, not shown in cat.
St. Petersburg, FL, The Museum of Fine Arts, The Lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited, January 10-July 7, 1996, cat. 10.

Mrs. Mary J. Morgan, New York (d. 1886); sale of her estate, American Art Galleries, New York, Mar. 5, 1886, lot 223. Mr. Samuel M. Nickerson (1830-1914) and Mrs. Matilda Nickerson (née Pinkham Crosby, 1837-1912); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 1900.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.