TRAJAN'S KIOSK, Island of Philae in the Nile

Franklin D. Briscoe
American School (b Baltimore 1844 -- d Philadelphia 1903)

Island of Philae in the Nile, Trajan’s Kiosk
oil on canvas, 20 x 16"
In period (possibly original) gold leaf finished frame, restored to fine condition, outside dimensions 27 x 23”.
Signed lower right : “F.D. Briscoe”
Franklin Dullin Briscoe was born in Baltimore and began his painting career at the age of 16, studying under marine painter Edward Moran (1829-1901) in Philadelphia. He travelled extensively along the east coast and abroad, and studied in London and Paris.

The tiny island of Philae (the smaller of a pair by that name) revered as burial place of Osiris, was sacred both to the Egyptians on the north and the Ethiopians on the south. An ancient center of commerce, its nearby granite quarries attracted miners and stonemasons. A complex of temple structures was erected, added to and reinterpreted successively, by the Egyptian Pharoahs, Greeks, Romans and Byzantine Christians, from about 400 BC through 700 AD.

In addition to the temple complex, Philae was noted for singular effects of light, attributed to its location at the Tropic of Cancer. From the 1820’s it was a favored destination for artists, intellectuals and Egyptologists.

In 1902 the Aswan Low Dam and succeeding projects flooded the island. The buildings were physically secure, but the attractive vegetation and the colors of the temple reliefs were washed away, and the bricks became encrusted with river silt and debris. A UNESCO project from 1977-1980 reassembled the temple complex at a site in Agilkai 550 meters away. The 19th century images and accounts are all that remain today of its original appearance. The structure painted here by Briscoe is Trajan’s Kiosk.

British novelist Amelia Edwards visited about the same time as Briscoe, and describes an experience similar to the one he captured in paint :
“The approach by water is quite the most beautiful. Seen from the level of a small boat,
the island, with its palms, its colonnades, its pylons, seems to rise out of the river like a mirage.”

A variation by Briscoe of this same locale, dated 1893 (size 24 x 20”, sold at Neal Auction Company in 1996 for $4,400.) was inscribed in the artist’s hand “Island of Philae on the Nile”. He expanded the same subject horizontally in a 30 x 50” canvas sold at Christies NY in 2007 for $13,750.

References : Artfact, Artnet, A Century of Philadelphia Artists, (Schwartz Gallery Publications), Who’s Who in American Art (Falk), Wikipedia.


# 1007m .................................SOLD