Scanned from a slide by Bill Prochazka. Photographed by Scott Wolff. Color corrected by Pat C…

First Court of Temple of Ramses III, Medinet Aboo

Artist Edwin Howland Blashfield (American, 1848-1936)

CultureAmerican

Date1887

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 35 3/4 x 25 5/8 in. (90.8 x 65.1 cm)
Overall, Frame: 43 1/8 x 33 1/8 in. (109.5 x 84.1 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated lower right: EH BLASHFIELD MARCH 1887; Inscribed below the image: FIRST COURT OF TEMPLE OF RAMSES III AT MEDINET ABOO THEBES BUILT ABOUT B.C. 1288

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.834

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an oil on canvas painting. It is a view of Egyptian ruins, depicting three large statues and a couple of human figures in the foreground. It is predominantly tan in color; a small corner of the blue sky is visible at the top, left of center.

Label TextEdwin H. Blashfield American, 1848-1936 First Court of Temple of Ramses III, Medinet Aboo, 1887 Oil on canvas The clearly inscribed title carefully identifies this scene as an Egyptian tomb located on the banks of the Nile near the ancient city of Thebes. The massive, partially-ruined statues representing Osiris, the god of the dead, tower over the modern Egyptians below. While Blashfield has painstakingly recorded the details of the architecture, sculpture, and hieroglyphic carving, the crumbling stone forms blend into the unfinished composition at the edges of the canvas and create a scene both archaeological and romantic. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.834ProvenanceThe artist, 1887-1894 or later;...; Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.; Chrysler Art Museum of Provincetown, Mass., 1969-1971; Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. to the Chrysler Museum, 1971. Exhibition HistoryPennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Pa., 1894. "The Lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited," Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Fla., January 10 - June 9, 1996. "The Allure of Ancient Egypt," Selden Arcade, Norfolk, VA, June 18 - August 17, 2013.Published ReferencesEric Zafran, "Edwin H. Blashfield: Motifs of the American Renaissance," _Arts Magazine_ 54, no. 3 (November 1979): 149-151. Gerald M. Ackerman, _American Orientalists_ (Paris: ACR, Édition Internationale, 1994), 16-18. ISBN: 2867700787 Jennifer Hardin, _The Lure of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs Revisited_, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg, Fla., 1996, 14, no. 3. Martha N. Hagood and Jefferson C. Harrison, _American Art at the Chrysler Museum: Selected Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings_ (Norfolk, Va.: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2005), 118-119, no. 72. ISBN: 0-940744-71-6 Mina Rieur Weiner, ed., _Edwin Howland Blashfield: Master American Muralist_, (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2009), 61.