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Jean-Leon Gerome
(French, 1824 — 1904)
Harem Pool (1876)
Inventory Number: 6221
Oil on canvas.
22.5 x 27 inches (57 x 68.5 cm)
Throughout his artistic career Gerome made numerous visits to the Orient — to Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Sinai. His unfailing interest in the depiction of scenes from the life of the Muslim world gave him a reputation as an "ethnographic" artist, of which he was very proud. He approached his Oriental compositions with the eyes of an observant tourist, and they are often of great documentary value. Gerome produced very precise representations not only of exotic costumes, architecture and interiors, but also of different ethnic types. In the Hermitage painting we see a Turkish bath in a Harem. In the centre, lit through a window in the ceiling, we see two white women and a dark-skinned slave. With particular care Gerome painted the figures and the details of the setting: the smooth surface of the marble floor, the coloured tiles, the numerous niches, the furniture and the clothing. The style of Gerome's oriental works, realistic in content and classicizing in technique, is often described as "academic realism".
Size can be commissioned smaller or larger.
Collection of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.