14 - Jean Léon GÉRÔME (Vésoul, 1824 – Paris, 1904)

Jean Léon GÉRÔME (Vésoul, 1824 – Paris, 1904) The Main Courtyard of the Palace of the Knights of St. John, in the seaside town of Akko (Byzantine Acre), circa 1861 Oil on canvas 23 x 31 cm Annotated: “The Arch of the Chapel” This lot is being offered as a temporary import. This lot will be sold under the general VAT regime (at a rate of 5.5% of the total price). At the end of 1861, Gérôme was planning an eight-month trip to Egypt and the Near East, but his plans were derailed by a duel. A heated exchange with a certain Mr. Stevens (an art dealer), perhaps over a woman, led to this challenge. Unlike his experienced opponent, Gérôme had never taken part in a duel before and was likely saved by his doctor’s last-minute advice, who recommended that he stand sideways. Gérôme missed his target, but his opponent’s bullet struck the artist’s right wrist before lodging in his shoulder. Undeterred, Gérôme set off for Egypt, his arm still in a sling. This oil sketch, painted en plein air, was most certainly created during this second trip to North Africa and the Near East. During that same trip, Gérôme traveled to Judea and the Holy Land, where he painted the view of the Western Wall in Jerusalem, which originally served as the left panel of this series. In the years that followed, Gérôme frequently returned to the plein air sketches he had made during his travels to the Near East and North Africa. The view of Cairo from the top of a hill would become the artist’s spectacular depiction of the young Napoleon Bonaparte contemplating his first great conquest (*General Bonaparte in Cairo*, 1863, State Historic Landmark at Heast San Simeon, California), while Gérôme’s sketch of the Wailing Wall would evolve into *Solomon’s Wall* (1869, 92 x 73 cm, private collection), filled with figures in prayer, of which he also painted a vertical sketch (25 x 18 cm). A third sketch depicting the ramparts of ancient Jerusalem would become the painter’s work titled *Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem* (oil on canvas: 80 x 127 cm, Vesoul Museum). Acre, originally a Byzantine coastal city, located about 100 miles north of Jerusalem. This recent sketch shows the center of the former Hall of the Knights, now a vast ruin that was once a large Crusader complex (approximately 4,500 square meters) located at the northwest corner of the Old City of Acre, near the sea. These halls were built by the Hospitallers—the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John—in the early 12th century, after the Crusaders captured Acre in 1104. Saladin drove the Crusaders out of Jerusalem in 1187, and Acre fell shortly thereafter to Saladin’s forces. Richard the Lionheart recaptured the city in 1191 and established it as the capital of what remained of the Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was the Crusaders’ last stronghold in the Holy Land; the fortress and palace located on the seashore allowed supply ships from Europe to resupply them for nearly 200 years, until the city was captured by the Mamluks in 1291 and completely destroyed. In January 1868, entrusting his students to a close friend, he set out on a three-and-a-half-month journey to the Near East in the company of eight other friends, including the young photographer Albert Goupil. By that time, he had already learned Arabic and was a seasoned traveler, as well as a lively and friendly companion. Setting out from Marseille, they disembarked in Alexandria and traveled up the Nile to Cairo and Giza, taking photographs and making sketches along the way. From there, he took the train to Suez, then set out on a safari toward Mount Sinai via the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, before continuing his journey across the Aqaba Peninsula to Petra, and finally to Jerusalem. It was there that he met the American painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), who had by then become just as famous, before leaving the group and returning home by ship, from Jaffa to Marseille, accompanied by Albert Goupil. Back in his studio in Paris, Gérôme developed a body of “classical” paintings—solo models posing in costumes and with props he had collected during his travels—all painted with meticulous care: Arabs, Arnauts, Almehs, merchants, Bashi-Bazouks, young butchers—seated, smoking, holding rifles, tending to dogs, or simply standing—and incorporating his props: rifles, handguns, hookahs, vases. Gérôme et