MARILHAT, Prosper
(b. 1811, Vertaizon, d. 1847, Paris)

View of Ezbekiyah, Cairo

c. 1835
Engraving
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

In 1834 the young French painter, Prosper Marilhat showed a view of Ezbekiyah Square, Cairo and three other Egyptian scenes at the Paris Salon. Like many of his generation, he had felt a restless urge to travel and had joined a scientific expedition led by an Austrian baron, Karl von Hugel, to the Near East. The artist was to die, insane, aged just thirty-six, and his Cairo scene survives only in a print.