Pierre-Emile Gigoux de Grandpré

The canvas has been relined. There are scattered faint lines of craquelure. Ultraviolet light reveals signs of retouching, notably clustered tiny spots and fine lines addressing craquelure in the lower right quadrant of the sky and its upper centre, in a 3 by 10cm area in the extreme upper left corner, a 2 by 5cm area of restoration above the horizon and to the left of the sail in the left of the composition, and fine lines addressing craquelure in some of the rowers and in the canopy of the harem boat. Held in a decorative gilt coved & fluted 'Salon style' frame, with laurel leaf ornaments. The catalogue illustration is overall accurate, however the colours in the sky are somewhat deeper in the original than in the catalogue illustration.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In this serene panorama, a barque propelled by eight oarsmen, carrying a harem of veiled beauties guarded by a eunuch, glides across the water in a tranquil Egyptian landscape. A turbaned courtier, seated at the prow, watches over his precious charge, while a ninth oarsman steers from the stern. On the horizon rise the ruins of an archaeological site, presumably the Temple of Karnak at Luxor, while two feluccas lie moored in the middle distance. ‘Harem’ originally meant the hidden and forbidden place where the sultan’s wives lived, and was a constant source of fascination for Western artists who were barred from this private world. Here, the wives and concubines are seen, or imagined, during a brief moment of recreation beyond the confines of their domestic space.

The composition of Gigoux’s painting draws on two famous paintings by his contemporary, Jean-Léon Gérôme (lot 12): Le Prisonnier (1861, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes), and the eponymous Promenade du harem (1869, fig. 1), the silhouette of the ruins borrowed from the former, and the boat and figures from the latter. Armand Sylvestre’s praise of Gérôme’s Promenade describes Gigoux’s painting just as accurately: ‘This thoroughly remarkable composition exudes an infinite calm, the calm of warm evenings over quiet waters, before the light wing of night flutteringly disturbs the polished surface of the river and fills the atmosphere with imperceptible vibrations.’ (‘Salon de 1869’, La Revue moderne, vol. 53, p. 153). The overall effect of reverie of both Gérôme’s and Gigoux’s paintings may in turn have been suggested by the most famous painting by Gérôme’s teacher, Charles Gleyre, Lost Illusions.