Jean-Léon Gérôme

Hammer Galleries, New York (and sold, Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, March 12, 1969, lot 98, illustrated)
Dr. James Nelson
Private Collection (and sold, Sotheby's, New York, May 24, 1988, lot 40, illustrated)
Private Collection, New York
Thence by descent

Gerald M. Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, with a catalogue raisonné, London, 1986, p. 270-1, no. 403, illustrated
Gerald M. Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme, monographie révisée, catalogue raisonné mis à jour, Paris, 2000, p. 333, no. 403, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting has been lined with wax as an adhesive. This lining is easily reversible and may not be necessary. The paint layer is clean and varnished. Under ultraviolet light, only a couple of small retouches in the lower right sky, a spot or two to the right of the camel and a spot or two in the shadow to the right of the camel are visible. It is recommended that the wax lining be reversed and the painting be left unlined if possible; this would allow subtle improvement to the light in the work and a more delicate feeling to emerge.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Called “the city of a thousand minarets,” Cairo captivated Western artists during the nineteenth century with its distinctive skyline and wide array of elaborately decorated religious structures.  Jean-Léon Gérôme’s many paintings of the interiors and exteriors of Cairene mosques form an important subgenre within his expansive Orientalist oeuvre, and indicate the artist’s deep appreciation of both local culture and historical accuracy.  The architectural precision of the individual components of these works, however, attributable to Gérôme’s vast library of contemporary photographs and the numerous studies that he made during his travels abroad, is oftentimes deceiving: the artist’s imaginative reconfigurations of Cairo’s religious topography defy any attempt at map-making, and elevate Gérôme’s paintings from mere documentation to the realm of well-composed art. In the present work, three sunlit minarets are silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky.  In reality, they are separated by many miles of twisting, turning streets, while in Gérôme’s painting, they are effortlessly brought together for picturesque effect.  On the left is the minaret built by Sultan al-Ghuri at ‘Arab Yasar (1510 AD) on the western side of Cairo’s Suyuti cemetery. Rather than standing above the roof of the mosque, as do most medieval minarets, with a first gallery well above adjacent rooftops, it flanks the mosque’s northern corner at street level.  To the right of this unusual structure —again, on canvas if not in fact — is the short-lived mabkhara, or incense-burner, style minaret of Sultan Baybars al-Jashankir (1303-4 AD).  Its ribbed helmet, which rests on a pierced pavilion atop a cylinder, was once decorated with green ceramic tile — the earliest example of a minaret adorned in this way.  Its lower rectangular shaft features the ablaq courses of contrasting colored stone and the crowning bunches of stucco stalactites that distinguish Mamluk-era architecture. A favorite of Gérôme’s, this minaret can be seen in several other works dating from the early 1890s (see Vue du Caire, 1891 and Une journée chaude au Caire [variation], 1890, both illustrated in Ackerman, 1986). The central minaret, with its pencil-shaped Ottoman turret, is also repeated in compositions from this time (see The Minarets, circa 1891, Haggin Museum, Stockton, California; Studies for this minaret, as well as several others, are housed at the Musée Georges-Garret, Vesoul.)  The dramatic emphasis on vacant space in the foreground of Gérôme’s painting, on the other hand, broken only by a wandering dog and the gangling form of a patient camel, may be traced to a much earlier work — The Death of Marshall Ney (1868, Sheffield City Art Galleries).  The presence of the blue-robed muezzin on the first gallery of the al-Ghuri minaret links Une Journée Chaude to additional masterpieces from the 1860s – notably, the hauntingly beautiful series of prayer paintings that he produced after a second Egyptian tour (see Prayer on the Housetops, 1865, Kunsthalle, Hamburg and Muezzin [Call to Prayer], 1866, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska). 

This catalogue note was written by Emily M. Weeks, Ph.D.