ORIENTALISM: Napoleon and the Egyptian expedition with Sylvia Sagona

When Napoleon set out for Egypt with a ship full of artists, mathematicians, botanists and historians, it was clear there was more at stake than blocking the British trade route to India. Indeed, this expedition was the first major investigation of the East and led to the establishment of the Louvre, deciphering the Rosetta stone and a wave of Egyptomania in art and literature. At the age of 28 Napoleon was already much more than a soldier.

Sylvia Sagona is an internationally recognised specialist on 19th century French society. She retired from the French Department at the University of Melbourne to work on historical documentaries for French and Australian television and is currently researching a book on Parisian women in the 19th century and a French documentary on the history of the restaurant in Paris.

Antoine-Jean Gros (1771 – 1835), Bonaparte visiting the Pesthouse in Jaffa, 1804, collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris