Portrait of a Lady

Portrait of a Lady

Artist: Jean Leone Gerome
Title: Portrait of a Lady 1866
Signed left center
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size21 1/4 x 14 1/8 inches (54 x 36 cm)
Location: Private collection

Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert

Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert

Title: Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert 1857
Signed lower right
Medium: Oil on panel
Size: 25 1/8 x 43 1/8 inches (64 x 109.8 cm)
Location: Private collection
French Orientalist

The Harem in the Kiosk, Constantinople

Artist: Jéan Léone Gérôme
Title: The Harem in the Kiosk, Constantinople
Signed:
Medium:
Size:
French Orientalist

Arnaut Officer

Artist: Jean Léone Gérôme
Title: Arnaut Officer
Signed:
Medium:
Size:
French Orientalist

For artists these unfinished paintings or studies are a treasure trove. Here the pencil outlines of the figures are only slightly hidden behind a thin wash. Eventhough the work is in it's early stages the arnaut has a solid presence and is well grounded, through the cast shadow. The clothing already shows promise of great attention to detail as we are used to seeing in Gërôme's work.

The Pyrrhic Dance

The Pyrrhic Dance

Artist: Jean Léone Gérôme
Title: The Pyrrhic Dance
Signed lower right Jean Leone Gerome (late Period)
Medium: Oil on Canvas/huile sur toile
Size: 25 x 35 in (63.5 x 89 cm)
French Orientalist

A Young Nymph teased by Putti

Artist: Jean Léone Gérôme
Title: A Young Nymph teased by Putti, 1851
Signed and dated 'J. L. Gerome 1851' (lower left) inscribed with the artist's initials on the reverse
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 16 x 12 in (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
French Orientalist, 1824-1904


Gérôme a follower of the Néo-Grec school of the 1850s used a popular subject-matter of Fragonard and other Rococo artists by depicting this nude scene.

This composition is after a preparatory drawing by Gérôme that was sold at Christie's, New York, May 22, 1997, entitled Venus playing with Putti by the Statue of Cupid. The drawing is lightly squared for transfer in black lead, and the figures are the same size as in the painting. There are differences between the preparatory drawing and the painting, the statue of Cupid and a decorated staff on the ground have been omitted in the oil, and the figure on the ground behind the legs of the main group is new. However, the central group of three figures is almost exactly the same as in the drawing.

Gérôme has signed his picture in italics, his practice in the fifties when signing oil sketches; his finished works were signed with Roman capitals. This painting may then be a preliminary oil sketch for a larger version of the subject not yet recovered, or perhaps never painted.

Please note than in Gerald Ackerman's revised monograph, (Jean-Léon Gérôme, monographe révisée, Catalogue raisonné mis à jour, Paris, 2000, p. 218, no. 33.5, illustrated p. 219) this work is reattributed to Studio of Gerome. Although a French translation of the above catalogue note also appears in his 2000 monograph, Mr. Ackerman now adds that the present work may be an esquisse for a larger work not yet discovered or perhaps never realized. He also feels that studio members may have been involved in the present work's execution as Mr. Ackerman considers the quality of the painting to be less than that of the drawing.
Source Prof. Gerald Ackerman Sotheby catalogue for the February 9, 1999 (lot 92)