THIS PAIR-STATUE depicts a seated husband and wife. There is no inscription on the statue, perhaps indicating it remained unfinished, so the names of the couple are unknown. It is not known where their statue originated, though a number of similar statues have been found in Saqqara. The style of the figures, and their elaborate wigs and pleated robes, are characteristic of sculpture of the later years of the Eighteenth Dynasty, around the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1352 вс), and the early years of the Nineteenth Dynasty (begins 1295 вс).

Henry Moore (1898-1986), one of the greatest British artists of the twentieth century, was a frequent visitor to the British Museum and once
said: ‘... nine-tenths of my understanding and learning about sculpture came from the British Museum’. He particularly admired this statue, and it was the inspiration for his King and Queen (1952-3), now in the Tate Gallery, London.



From Egypt, 18th or 19th Dynasty, c. 1300 вс Ht 130 cm