Pool In a Harem
Cleopatra before CaesarMost famously painted by Gerome in his 1866 'Cleopatra and Caesar', this pose is one that haunts the figure of Cleopatra throughout the 19th century. Sometimes titled 'Cleopatra before Caesar', Gerome's image is based, ostensibly, on one of the most familiar representations of Cleopatra in her history, presented originally by Plutarch and discussed above: that of Cleopatra, with the help of Apollodorus, having smuggled herself past the posted Roman guard, being unrolled from her hiding place of either the rugs or a carpet of bedding before Julius Caesar. "The stout slave clears the drapery with a single gesture'" narrated Shinn in 1881,"and crouches motionless, Cleopatra trusting her balance to his support with one royal knuckle, knowing that her chattel will not stirr until released."
The Christian Martyrs Last Prayer
Arab Encampment
Love the Conqueror
The Prisoner
Woman at Bath
The Slave Market
Prayer in the Desert
Old Merchant who lives in Cairo
Home from the Hunt
Arnaut Smoking
Napoleon and his General Staff in Egypt
Sabre Dance in a Cafe
Bathing Scene
Selling Slaves in Rome
Gerome with his Model
Prayer in the Mosque
Gérôme started work on this canvas in 1846 after he had failed to win the Prix de Rome. Having missed his chance at entry to the Villa Medici, he feared a new rebuff and hesitated to exhibit his "Young Greeks Attending a Cock Fight". But, encouraged by his master, the academic painter Delaroche, he finally entered his painting in the Salon of 1847, where it was a great success.
In the "Neo-Grec" style, characterized by a taste for meticulous finish, pale colours and smooth brushwork, Gérôme portrays a couple of near-naked adolescents at the foot of a fountain. Their youthfulness contrasts with the battered profile of the Sphinx in the background. The same opposition is found between the luxuriant vegetation and the dead branches on the ground, and in the fight between the two roosters, one of which is doomed to die.
In the chorus of praise for the work, few commentators noticed the artist's disillusioned attitude. Hardly anyone but Baudelaire criticized the canvas, calling Gérôme the leader of the "meticulous school", and finding him weak and artificial. The public preferred the opinion of Théophile Gautier who saw in The Cock Fight "wonders of drawing, action and colour". At the age of twenty-three, Gérôme therefore made a brilliant entry into the art world and thereafter pursued the official career he had planned for himself, punctuated with honors and rewards.
Source: Musée d'Orsay
Phryne before the Areopagus
After the Bath"Gérome chooses not to portray them in erotic or 'splendid' poses. Instead, he observes the movement of muscle and flesh as the body turns, and records the manner in which the light falls on the skin; for the artist, the human body itself was a thing of beauty. The structure of the bones, the mechanism of the musculature, and the flexibility of the skin were wonders, beauties of nature to be observed, studied and reported. Consequently, both he and his friend Edgar Degas sometimes placed their models into awkward positions to reveal, in full splendor, the anatomy of the human body."
The Slave MarketThe Arab slave trade refers to the practice of slavery in West Asia, North Africa, East Africa, and certain parts of Europe (such as Sicily and Iberia) during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade mostly involved North and East Africans and Middle Eastern peoples (Arabs, Berbers, Persians, etc.). Also, the Arab slave trade was not limited to people of certain color, ethnicity, or religion. In the early days of the Islamic state—during the 8th and 9th centuries—most of the slaves were Slavic Eastern Europeans (called Saqaliba), people from surrounding Mediterranean areas, Persians, Turks, other neighbouring Middle Eastern peoples, peoples from the Caucasus Mountain regions (such as Georgia and Armenia) and parts of Central Asia (including Mamluks), Berbers, and various other peoples of varied origins as well as those of Black African origins. Later, toward the 18th and 19th centuries, slaves increasingly came from East Africa
Source:Wikipedia
Photo take by Howard
Photo of Jean_Léon_Gérôme
Self Portrait
Whirling Dervish
Jean Bart
Recruits
Night
Seraglio
Venus
Pho Xai
Almeh