As we celebrate this year the bicentenary of the decipherment of hieroglyphs by Jean-François Champollionthe Champollion museum, located in Vif, near Grenoble, in the family property of the famous and brilliant dauphinois, has just acquired 3 notebooks of 148 drawings and sketches, made in pencil and graphite, by the draftsman Tuscan Salvatore Cherubini, during theChampollion Egyptian expeditionwhich lasted 18 months, between 1828 and 1829.
Drawings full of life
Animals, landscapes, monuments, portraits of natives and members of the expedition, the drawings of the Italian artist, son of the composer of the same name, are snapshots of life, very realistic and full of finesse, precision too: detail of a headdress or a garment, a jewel, a look full of life. In a few strokes, such a village near the Nile is sketched, with its minarets, its cupolas. Cherubini also designed the expedition boat, a dahabieh, a traditional Egyptian boat, which transported the 14 members of the expedition, the equipment, the food.
– Veronique Pueyo
Cherubini worked in the evening, like to relax after an exhausting day of work, spent copying texts on ancient monuments, temples, bas-reliefs. The drawings are almost all dated and captioned. He sketched a scene of daily Egyptian life, quickly, on the spot, during a stopover, a visit to a market. We discover a singer, a woman who smokes a pipe, a beautiful tree, harnessed horses. The curator handles the notebooks with delicacy, with gloved hands, because these pieces are fragile.
Acquired at Drouot for 23,400 euros
These three notebooks are from a private collectionbelonging to a Frenchman and identified by an Egyptologist in the 1980s. The Department acquired them at a public sale at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris last June for 23,400 euros, thanks to the special procedure called pre-emptiona right granted by the State which allows an institution to replace the last bidder.
The only portrait of Jean-François Champollion, in Egypt
Catherine Dugand, curator of the Champollion museum, dwells on the portrait produced by Cherubini of Jean-François Champollion: “We have there, the only attested portrait of Champollion, in Egypt. It is located in Medinet Habou. We are in 1829. Champollion is dressed in the oriental style, wearing on his head a tarbouche and on his shoulders a chechia, a sort of large coat. He let his beard and mustache grow. As he has a dull complexion and speaks perfect Arabic, people take him for an Egyptian. He really blended in with the people. This reflects his immersion in a culture, a country he loved so much.”
– Veronique Pueyo
This chechia, this headgear, we find them on display in the museum! This trip to Egypt by Champollion was a highlight because the scientist from Isère was thus able check on the spot that his decryption method worked perfectly. He thus collected thousands of inscriptions to feed his research.
It was important that these notebooks come back here, in Isère – Jean-Pierre Barbier, president of the Departmental Council.
Jean-Pierre Barbier, President of the Department, is charmed and delighted with this acquisition: “It’s important that these three notebooks come back here, to the house in Champollion. They are moving. All of these characters look alive. We have the impression that Champollion is coming back from his expedition and showing us these sketches! I want to emphasize that the Department is always on standby, to acquire such treasures, whether for this museum but also for the dauphinois museum or the museum of the French Revolution in Vizille.”
– Veronique Pueyo
The objective of the museum team, which is celebrating its first year of opening, is now to study these three notebooks in depth, to document more and more Champollion’s expedition on the Nile in 1828 and to have them published in a few years
Officially installed this Monday, July 18, in a showcase of the museum, visitors can now admire them. Every three months, a page will be turned to discover new designs.