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Lot Essay
The ladies of the Sultan's household are enjoying themselves in an enclosed courtyard of the Topkapi Palace. The sun has just set, and its last, sweet light, reflecting from an almost cloudless sky, bathes them and their surroundings in a soft, shadowless light, which tints them and their surroundings with ambiguous pink hues. Some of the women are splashing in the waters of the enclosed pool; others dressed in brilliantly colored garments, listen to a musician seated with them on a rug on the terrace beside the pool. All are enclosed within a wonderful architecture of arches and a pagoda. Previous to painting this picture, Gerome had been in Istanbul the guest of the court painter, and he may have seen this terrace--but certainly not filled with nude ladies--and made some color sketches of it. Most likely, however, he painted the courtyard with the help of photographs supplied by the famous Istanbul photography firm, Abdullah Freres, and peopled it with his favorite models who posed for him in his Paris studio, dressed in examples from his enormous costume collection. The coin spangled vest of the musician is new, however, and allows Gerome an opportunity for an astonishing exercise in values
The viewer's attention is divided between the group of richly dressed ladies on the rug, who present a brilliant collection of textures and colors, and the antics of their nude companions in the water. One group, to the right, seems to have been inspired by the splashing bathers on a relief of Goujon's Fountain of the innocents in Paris, a composition that inspired Renoir about the same time (for The Tyson Bathers, Philadelphia Museum of Art).
La Terasse du Serail may be paired with another famous bath scene painted by Gerome after his trip to Turkey in the early 1880s, The Large Pool at Bursa, (La grand Piscine de Brousse, 1885, private collection). It is equally elaborate in the figural poses and architectural setting; its somber indoor lighting and muted tones contrast strongly with the evening sunlight and multi-colored fabrics of this picture.
The variety of poses and activities, the multiplicity of textures (the rug, the water, the fabrics of the costumes and the wonderful space set up by the architecture) make this one of the most enticing of Geromes bathing scenes.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Fig. 22 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1862. Muse du Louvre, Paris
Fig. 43 Jean Lon Grme in his studio
The viewer's attention is divided between the group of richly dressed ladies on the rug, who present a brilliant collection of textures and colors, and the antics of their nude companions in the water. One group, to the right, seems to have been inspired by the splashing bathers on a relief of Goujon's Fountain of the innocents in Paris, a composition that inspired Renoir about the same time (for The Tyson Bathers, Philadelphia Museum of Art).
La Terasse du Serail may be paired with another famous bath scene painted by Gerome after his trip to Turkey in the early 1880s, The Large Pool at Bursa, (La grand Piscine de Brousse, 1885, private collection). It is equally elaborate in the figural poses and architectural setting; its somber indoor lighting and muted tones contrast strongly with the evening sunlight and multi-colored fabrics of this picture.
The variety of poses and activities, the multiplicity of textures (the rug, the water, the fabrics of the costumes and the wonderful space set up by the architecture) make this one of the most enticing of Geromes bathing scenes.
We are grateful to Professor Gerald M. Ackerman for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
Fig. 22 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Turkish Bath, 1862. Muse du Louvre, Paris
Fig. 43 Jean Lon Grme in his studio