“IMMORTALITY IS THE GIFT PORTRAITURE BESTOWS ON THE PORTRAYED.” 1

1. Euphrosyne Doxiadis

Encaustic work of the finest style, from the single most important discovery of ancient panel paintings, among the finest and best preserved known and likely the only officially excavated panel portrait remaining in private hands. Subsequently exhibited in two of the most impactful exhibitions of Egyptian Art of the nineteenth century and later owned by some of the most important art collectors and dealers of the twentieth century before its loss into obscurity and rediscovery in 2023. Exceptionally well preserved with no overpainting.

Graeco-Roman Panel Paintings

The panel paintings from Roman Egypt are the oldest surviving naturalistic portraits known, created 1,500 years before paintings of everyday people would next appear. Painted for the men, women and children of the Fayum Oasis, they were placed over the faces of their mummies, preserving their images across millennia.

This striking painting of a young, elegant lady vividly captures the essence of a woman from two thousand years ago. Likely a member of the Graeco-Egyptian community, the portrait reflects the sitter’s wealth and status, depicting a woman from a prosperous multicultural city wearing luxury goods made from the finest imported materials. Her jewellery, made to order by highly skilled craftsmen, is embellished with large polished emeralds from the Mons Smaragdus (Emerald Mountains) near the Red Sea coast, and pearls from the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Her elaborate hairstyle, achievable only through the efforts of personal maids or household servants, is adorned with an ebony hairpin, a prestigious wood imported from the Somali Peninsula via trade routes on the East African coast.

Painting Style

The style of the present portrait closely adheres to earlier Greek painting traditions, capturing the subject in three-quarter view. Since no panel paintings from the Greek world have survived, the portraits of the Fayum Oasis – conserved by Egypt’s arid climate – are the only examples of an art form that ancient literary sources place among the highest achievements of Greek culture.

Painted in the encaustic technique, in which pigment is suspended in beeswax, and using a metal tool known as the cauterium, many of these panel portraits display the typical impasto effect. However, what sets Portrait L apart is the refined and notably ‘painterly’ style, created by thinning or emulsifying the wax, and by the widespread use of another tool: the penicillum, or bush. Indeed, this more painterly style can be seen in areas of both cheeks, where the wax is so thin that hints of the ground layer beneath can be seen. This innovative approach also allowed the artist to create subtle transitions of shadow that would have been hard to achieve with thick impasto. It also enabled the artist to sharpen the definition and realism of the subject’s large eyes, which are presented with a level of detail and intensity that is unparalleled.

In the Shadow of the Pyramid

In the early months of 1888, William Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) set out to uncover the secrets of Hawara. Working tirelessly in the heat of the Egyptian sun, under the imposing shadow of the Pyramid of Amenemhat III, he was on the brink of one of the most remarkable discoveries in the history of Egyptology: a burial ground for the Graeco-Roman elite from across the region, untouched for two thousand years.

However, the usual and expected treasures of these ancient people were of little interest. Rather, Petrie had stumbled upon the first undisturbed cache of mummy portraits painted in the vibrant encaustic technique, perfectly preserved and bearing the likeness of their owner: ‘[This] may prove the most profitable speculation of all; for we find the bodies untouched, under the floors. They have no amulets, but one is a prize... over the head & neck is a board painted with a most beautiful portrait of a young girl.’ ²

Petrie's Discovery

On 14 February 1888, Petrie discovered Portrait L. That evening, he excitedly reported that, ‘after a week with scarcely anything came a flood of finds in one day. Two mummies with portraits in one tomb; both covered with cloth resined on. The portraits are therefore invisible till properly cleaned with spirit, though I can just see one through the resin: but they are certainly in first rate condition...’ ³ Found in a dig site to the north of the great Pyramid of Amenemhat III, Portrait L was discovered along with the portrait of an older woman (Portrait H), which now resides in the Royal Ontario Museum, Canada.

At the close of the 1888 season, Petrie returned to England, ready to display his treasures – including Portrait L – to the public. Exhibited at the fittingly titled Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, from 18 June until 12 July 1888, the portraits received widespread acclaim. Compared to the portraits of Velázquez, and noted for their remarkable preservation, ‘as fresh as the day they were painted,’⁴ it's hardly surprising that there were calls for the portraits to take up a place in leading museums and galleries, such as the National Gallery and the British Museum. A century and a half later, portraits from this find are located in some of the most important collections around the world, from the Cairo Museum, to the Antikensammlung in Berlin. However, Portrait L is the only one remaining in private hands.

Henry Martyn Kennard (1833-1911)

Henry Martyn Kennard was the financial backer for Petrie’s 1888 expedition. Fascinated by ancient realms, he visited the dig site frequently, selecting Portrait L for his own collection. Displayed in his London home, in 1895, Kennard also loaned the portrait to the Burlington Fine Arts Club for their seminal exhibition on the Art of Ancient Egypt. Throughout his lifetime, Kennard donated several pieces to key museum collections.⁵ However, Portrait L remained with him until his death in 1911.

The Kalebdjian Frères (fl.1905-1930)

Sold at Sotheby’s in 1912, Portrait L began her next chapter amid the splendour of Belle Époque Paris, at the gallery of the Kalebdjian Frères on 12 Rue de la Paix. The Kalebdjian’s was a collection made of the best Europe had to offer, comprising many ‘masterpiece[s] of the first rank’, that were ultimately dispersed to museums around the world. ⁶ As American archaeologist James Henry Breasted (1865-1935) said on visiting their gallery, ‘It makes one wish for unlimited funds!’⁷

Léonce Rosenberg (1879-1947)

By May 1914, Portrait L was in the collection of the legendary Parisian dealer – and advocate of the Cubist movement – Léonce Rosenberg. At the height of his career, Rosenberg’s name was known around Europe as the agent of emerging and controversial artists, foremost among them Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). However, Cubism was not always his raison d’être. After splitting from his brother Paul in 1911, he set out on his own path, ‘dealing... in Oriental and Far Eastern archaeology... objects [he] loved infinitely more than Impressionism...’⁸ From among the many masterpieces Rosenberg displayed, Portrait L was singled out by Henri d'Ardenne de Tizac (1877-1932): 'I like the smoothness of this portrait... the full chin, the luscious mouth, and that gaze, so fixed and cold in conventional works, which here acquires a kind of quiet depth, whose soothed gentleness pursues you for a long time.'⁹ To Rosenberg, there was a clear relationship between the works of his contemporaries and ‘those of the ancient Egyptian Empire, [and] Greece’. As he later concluded, ‘this kinship is the spirit of synthesis, of which Cubism is a new expression’.¹⁰ The 1918 exhibition of Portrait L alongside Cubist works in New York was a groundbreaking expression of this ideology.

Dr Arnold Ruesch (1882-1929)

By 1926, Portrait L was to be found in Zürich, hanging in a Pompeian-style villa – a precursor to the famous J. Paul Getty villa in Los Angeles – and the home of the remarkable collector and philosopher Dr Arnold Ruesch. On her visit in September 1927, Marie Beazley (1885- 1967), wife of renowned Oxford scholar Sir John Beazley (1885-1970), exclaimed that Villa Ruesch was simply ‘Zürich’s Museum’.¹¹ Displaying his collection in a way no museum could, Ruesch had elaborate ancient mosaics laid into the floor, and frescoes from the Villa Boscoreale were embedded into the walls. However, hanging on the wall of the study above a Roman audience chair now in The Walters Art Museum, was one of Ruesch’s finest pieces: Portrait L.

Dr Julius Maeder (1900-1973)

In 1936, Dr Julius Maeder, a lawyer by training, had just returned from his travels abroad. During his extensive world tour, Dr Maeder had visited the land of the pharaohs, and so the posthumous sale of Ruesch’s collection in August of that year, advertised in leading Swiss newspaper Der Bund, caught his eye. Maeder purchased eight lots from this sale, including a bust of Epicurus and two ancient rings, but Lot 175 – Portrait L – was the most valuable. Described later as a very private man, on his death, the portrait passed through his family, until its remarkable history was forgotten. Placed in storage for twenty-four years, stacked up alongside other old pictures and paintings, gathering dust, it was only in 2023 that she finally resurfaced at a Decorative Art sale in Switzerland.

A Masterpiece Rediscovered

Since its acquisition by ArtAncient, Portrait L has undergone a year-long research project, and four-months of scientific analysis, in order to rebuild her 136-year provenance, fully understand her condition and assess her significance within the corpus of surviving panel portraits. Extensive research has revealed the illustrious history of Portrait L: her exhibition in two of the 19th-century’s most groundbreaking exhibitions on Egyptian art; her time with some of the most renowned collectors of the 20th century and display in great capital cities all over the world; her inclusion in multiple publications; and her continuous ownership chain since her discovery, all hitherto unknown.

Moreover, Portrait L has undergone extensive scientific analysis at the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge and the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. This has revealed, for the first time since discovery, the painting’s near-perfect preservation, confirming Petrie’s own description of her discovery in which he recorded she was ‘certainly in first rate condition’.¹²