Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)

Details
Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904)

Premier Gardien des Présents, Luang-in-Manki; A Study of a Figure for 'Audience des Ambassadeurs de Siam à Fontainebleau'

signed 'J. L. Gerome'; oil on canvas
10¾ x 8 5/8in. (27.5 x 21.8cm.)
Painted in 1861
Provenance
with Thomas Agnew, Manchester
Anon. sale, Sotheby's London, 15 June 1982, lot 66
Literature
G. Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, London, 1986, pp. 74 and 214-5, no. 148E (illus. in colour and illus.) as whereabouts unknown

Lot Essay

Audience des Ambassadeurs de Siam à Fontainebleau was commissioned by the state in 1864 and exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1865, where it hung in the Salle d'Honneur with other imperial commissions. The visit of the ambassadors, on 27 June 1861, acknowledged the recently forced opening of the Siamese ports to western traders. Gérôme was at the reception with Meissonier and they are portrayed at the far right of the picture. Various members of the ambassadorial mission and the entourage sat briefly for Gérôme and some he sent to Nadar's photography studio. Several drawings and sketches are known.

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