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Lot Essay
This is an excellent drawing by Gérôme that was probably painted on his first extended visit to Egypt in the winter of 1856-7. The drawing is executed in Gérôme's early drawing technique similar to that used in the several surviving preparatory drawings for figures in his large allegory, a state commission The Age of Augustus (Salon of 1855; Musée de Picardie). The fee for the commission supported Gérôme and four friends on the trip.
About a dozen of these drawings are known, ten of men, two of women. In her biography of the artist (Gérôme, New York: Cassel, 1892) Fanny Herring reproduces seven of them, six Arab men and one woman. All are inscribed with their names, and with an identification, either of the village of origin, or, with a peasant; one of the women is said to be from Esna, an Egyptian city on the upper Nile. Her portrait has the date 1855 added under the inscription; it looks like an afterthought, and may have been added later, the product of an uncertain memory.
Like a young artist, Gérôme looks very carefully at his model and keeps himself from drawing any feature automatically, that is, 'from practice' or convention. He looks very carefully, seeing the slight differences between the eyes, getting the shape of the lips and their surrounding muscles exactly. The drawing gives the feeling that although carefully done, it was executed somewhat quickly and on the spot, far from the comforts of a studio. It was an abbreviated academic drawing, without high finish in the modelling, which adds to the sense of volume and the impact of the portrait.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald Ackerman for preparing this catalogue entry.
About a dozen of these drawings are known, ten of men, two of women. In her biography of the artist (Gérôme, New York: Cassel, 1892) Fanny Herring reproduces seven of them, six Arab men and one woman. All are inscribed with their names, and with an identification, either of the village of origin, or, with a peasant; one of the women is said to be from Esna, an Egyptian city on the upper Nile. Her portrait has the date 1855 added under the inscription; it looks like an afterthought, and may have been added later, the product of an uncertain memory.
Like a young artist, Gérôme looks very carefully at his model and keeps himself from drawing any feature automatically, that is, 'from practice' or convention. He looks very carefully, seeing the slight differences between the eyes, getting the shape of the lips and their surrounding muscles exactly. The drawing gives the feeling that although carefully done, it was executed somewhat quickly and on the spot, far from the comforts of a studio. It was an abbreviated academic drawing, without high finish in the modelling, which adds to the sense of volume and the impact of the portrait.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald Ackerman for preparing this catalogue entry.