(1769 Metz – 1823 Paris)
Cavalry Engagement during the Egyptian Campaign,
Battle of Samannoud ( ?)
Oil on panel
38 x 46 cm
Framed : 61 x 69 cm
Signed, lower left: Swebach.
Bears an old label on the panel: 391
1840 period frame
EXHIBITION: Salon of 1802, n° 754 «Un tableau représentant un escadron de Hussards, environné de Mamelucks, faisant face de tous côtés »
PROVENANCE: private collection, France; Sale Hôtel Drouot, Maître Picard, 13 December 1995, no. 36
Having acquired the bare rudiments of painting from his artist father, it is paradoxical that Swebach perfected his talent with an eminent portraitist of the Ancien Régime, Joseph-Siffred Duplessis. Afterwards, he joined the studio of Michel Hamon Duplessis, an artist who specialized in painting scenes of battles in the Dutch manner that was very much in vogue at the time.
This proved to be a decisive influence since Swebach devoted most of his career to military scenes with horses.
A prolific artist, he exhibited regularly at the Salon from 1791 to 1822. The dozens of works by his hand that were shown there attest to a success that remained constant for over thirty years. His way of working—precious and meticulous, without ever falling into the boring or the systematic—and his ability at capturing anecdotal and luminous effects, was regularly praised by the critics.
Chief painter at the Manufacture de Sèvres from 1802 to 1813, Swebach-Desfontaines designed numerous cartoons for it and was much appreciated by Alexandre Brongniart for his talent and his rapidity of execution: Brongniart judged him “the next best artist after Vernet for battle scenes with horses.”
Swebach was the overall supervisor in the creation of several of the principal table services produced by Sèvres during the Empire: Service encyclopédique, Service personnel de l’Empereur and above all, the two Services égyptiens made for Alexander I of Russia and Joséphine de Beauharnais after her divorce from Napoléon.
Based on drawings done between 1798 and 1801 by Vivant Denon during the Egyptian campaign, this famous service was one of the points of departure for Egyptomania in western art.
Our painting is entirely illustrative of the popularity of themes where adventure was blended with exoticism. The uniforms of the Hussars are represented in meticulous and dashing detail, with their characteristic dolmans (jackets), leather straps, and shakos.
The scene depicted by Swebach is that of squadrons of the 7thbis Hussar Regiment, the only unit of this branch of the military to have participated in the Egyptian campaign.
It is very probably an episode from the Battle of Samannoud, in the Nile delta in January 1799, opposing elements of the Armée d’Orient, under the orders of Desaix and Davout, and the Mamluks commanded by Osman Bey. Lasalle, the most famous of the dragoons during the Empire, distinguished himself in the ranks of the 7th bis, earning his colonel’s stripes there.
On a prepared panel, Swebach painted a work of great formal perfection, its porcelain surface foreshadowing his role at Sèvres.