Lot 32: Jean-Baptiste Louis de Gros (Baron Gros) (1793-1870) , The Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico

oil on paper laid down on canvas dated Teoàtihuàcan 1832 lower left; also signed and inscribed La plus grande des pyramides mexicaines de Teoàtihouàcan, / les indiens le nomment Tonatin, palais du soleil; / metzú, palais de la lune, ne se voit pas, le sentier qui va d'une pyramide à l'autre se nomme Micoalt, chemin des morts. /Juin 18 [183]2 Baron Gros on a label on the reverse

measurements 13 1/4 by 18 1/4 in. alternate measurements (33.8 by 46.4 cm)

Mexico City, Palacio de Iturbide/Fomento Cultural Banamex; Madrid, Casa de América, Viajeros Europeos del Siglo XIX en México, October, 1996-May, 1997, p. 76-77, no. 48, illustrated

Private Collection, Europe
Galerías Cristobal, Mexico City
Private Collection, Mexico City

Born into French nobility, Jean-Baptiste Louis de Gros (Baron Gros), was an accomplished painter, photographer, and diplomat who served as chargé d'affaires in Bogotá (1838), Athens (1850), and Ambassador to London (1852-1863). Like his father, Antoine-Jean Gros, official battle painter to Napoleon, Gros shared his vocation for the arts although preferring to focus his work on chronicling his remarkable journeys to such far-flung regions as China, Colombia, Greece, and Japan. He arrived in Mexico in 1832 as first secretary to the French Legation, where he also served as chargé d'affaires. Remaining in Mexico through 1936, Gros traveled extensively visiting Tepic, Cuautla, Orizaba, and the Cacahuamilpa caves. He also climbed the snow-capped volcano Popocatépetl or "Smoking Mountain" with his colleague and fellow travel painter, the Englishman Daniel Thomas Egerton. The body of work produced by Gros in Mexico reveals his passion for nature and is almost exclusively comprised of landscapes typically rendered in small formats and offering the viewer a panoramic vista or detail of such iconic locations as the Valley of Mexico, the "Salon del Chivo" at the caves of Cacahuamilpa, and this magnificent view of the Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan.
This painting may be considered an artistic monument of Mexico and, if so, could not be exported without the approval of the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH). Accordingly, it is offered for sale in New York from the catalogue and will not be available in New York for inspection or delivery. The painting will be released to the purchaser in Mexico in compliance with all local requirements. Prospective buyers may contact Sotheby's representatives in Mexico City and Monterrey for an appointment to view the work.