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Lot Essay
Jean-Léon Gérôme is best known for his paintings of Orientalist or historical subject matter however he also was a meticulous animal painter. His horses, camels, dogs, tigers and lions are often depicted with great precision and power making them excellent central figures. Gérôme was particularly fond of tigers, as his middle name is Léon and these felines appear in numerous compositions, particularly following Mr. Walters 1863 commission of The Christian Martyrs that was only completed and delivered to the Walters Art Gallery in 1883.
Gérôme would study and sketch these animals mostly at zoos or circuses as he was convinced that animals in captivity were healthier and had fewer injuries. He even canceled appointments to follow circuses on their routes if they contained good specimens. For a while, according to family tradition, he kept a retired circus animal, toothless and benign, as a pet.
Gerald Ackerman comments on Quarens quem devoret which "features a hungry lion stalking the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. Gérôme, fascinated by the desolate quality of the coastline, had sketched it in 1867. Now, kept at home ... the use of the older sketch material seems natural; it becomes a characteristic of the period" (Ackerman, op. cit., 1986, p. 133).
Gérôme loved observing the effects of light and what it did to objects: how it hit them, how it touched them and obscured or clarified their outlines or how it lit up certain colors and changed certain others. He also enjoyed juxtaposing rough surfaces with glossy ones, light and shadow with pure color, monumental with the minute and the infinitely spacious with the singular individual. The lion's placement on the bottom right singles him out, giving a strong emphasis to his vast and barren surrounding. The sun hits a dune across the bay, significantly alluminating it and the sea changes its color from an intense emerald green to a deep cobalt blue. A beautiful yet desolate surrounding dwarfs what is a noble and powerful lion.
Gérôme would study and sketch these animals mostly at zoos or circuses as he was convinced that animals in captivity were healthier and had fewer injuries. He even canceled appointments to follow circuses on their routes if they contained good specimens. For a while, according to family tradition, he kept a retired circus animal, toothless and benign, as a pet.
Gerald Ackerman comments on Quarens quem devoret which "features a hungry lion stalking the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba. Gérôme, fascinated by the desolate quality of the coastline, had sketched it in 1867. Now, kept at home ... the use of the older sketch material seems natural; it becomes a characteristic of the period" (Ackerman, op. cit., 1986, p. 133).
Gérôme loved observing the effects of light and what it did to objects: how it hit them, how it touched them and obscured or clarified their outlines or how it lit up certain colors and changed certain others. He also enjoyed juxtaposing rough surfaces with glossy ones, light and shadow with pure color, monumental with the minute and the infinitely spacious with the singular individual. The lion's placement on the bottom right singles him out, giving a strong emphasis to his vast and barren surrounding. The sun hits a dune across the bay, significantly alluminating it and the sea changes its color from an intense emerald green to a deep cobalt blue. A beautiful yet desolate surrounding dwarfs what is a noble and powerful lion.