Two studies of a standing boy holding his hands up in prayer

Figures of boys in a pose very similar to the one depicted here appear in several of Gérôme’s paintings. Particularly close to this study are boys praying with their arms raised in the second version of Prayer-time at the Mosque of Qani-Bay from 1895 (whereabouts unknown; see G.M. Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Paris, 2000, no. 421, ill. p. 165). This sheet of studies bears the signature and authentication of Aimé-Nicolas Morot, the artist's son-in-law.