Some of the most haunting images in European art were painted using a mixture of pigment in molten beeswax for use on their mummies when they were interred at Fayum in Egypt.
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As he continued to paint history and other narrative works, and turn his watercolours from North Africa into finished oil paintings, he started decorative painting for the State.
A little of the history of Egypt, from Books of the Dead in 1300 BCE, up to Napoleon’s campaign there between 1798-1801.
A succession of impending landscapes which culminate in ‘Villa by the Sea’, a mysterious Mediterranean view. An early symbolist?
Painting with pigment mixing with molten wax is another ancient method. Haunting funerary portraits from 80-250 CE show how effective it can be.
A hauntingly beautiful portrait of a young adult woman lost in quiet thought, made to fit on her mummy. Was she contemplating her eventual death?
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