This figure of a sphinx would originally have been understood as an idealized representation of the reigning pharaoh, combining a traditional leonine body with a stylized human head and reflecting the continued use of pharaonic iconography under Greek-Macedonian rule. The work’s formal features, including its serene countenance, integrated headdress, and finely worked musculature, particularly evident in the careful rendering of the ribs along the proper right flank, are characteristic hallmarks of Ptolemaic style.

The sphinx was formerly in the collects ion of the celebrated 20th-century portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh and his wife Estrellita Karsh, a medical historian and philanthropist in her own right. Karsh is renowned for photographing many of the most influential figures of the modern era, including Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, and Humphrey Bogart. The artist photographed the sphinx in his home alongside his wife, who affectionately referred to the sculpture as “Sphinxie.”