Léon Cogniet
Jean-François Champollion (1790 - 1832)
1831
Canvas - H 0,73 m ; W 0,60 m
In 1826 Jean-François Champollion, who had
just deciphered the mystery of hieroglyphs, opened a section at the Louvre which
was dedicated to Ancient Egypt. He created this museum by purchasing the
collections of the British and French consuls in Egypt.
From the mid XIXth century, the department began to grow, thanks to purchases of private collections, to the division of objects found during excavations, in particular those of August Mariette in Saqqara, to acquisitions made during sales of collections made up in Egypt, and to digs led by the French Institute of Oriental Archeology in Cairo.
