Pierre François Lehoux - Egyptian Landscape With A Sakieh

Pierre François LEHOUXParis, 1803 - Paris, 1889"Egyptian Sakié, 1865"Oil on wood panel24.5 x 18.5 cm (47 x 42.5 cm with the frame)Signed lower left with the monogram "Lhx"Countersigned, titled and dated "1865" on the back of the panelVery beautiful 19th century gilt wood channel frame Pierre François Lehoux is a 19th century orientalist painter. He accompanied Champollion during his famous exhibition of 1827/28 in Egypt.A painter of the Romantic period, he was influenced by Géricault with whom he worked. His workmanship is very solid with beautiful material effects. A student of Antoine-Jean Gros and Horace Vernet, he produced beautiful compositions that he exhibited at the Salon in Paris in the 1830s to 1860s. A very beautiful light and a very good sense of modeling characterize in particular his paintings which are found today in many museums, notably in France at the museum of Narbonne, Rouen and Dieppe. At the end of his career, from the 1860s, Pierre François Lehoux produced and exhibited a certain number of small landscapes and genre scenes based on his memories of Egypt. Our painting is a good example. Titled on the back and dated 1865, it is an "Egyptian Sakié" that is to say a kind of noria which was used for irrigation thanks to a wheel pulled by oxen (which can be seen at the top right of the composition) and represented in an Egyptian landscape; while further down, two women come to draw water from the river. The composition is original and very beautiful. We recognize the qualities of the painter in this small panel which has the charm of truth as much by the light, the effects of material and the precision of the description.