02 Paintings by Orientalist Artists, Jean-Léon Gérôme's Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert, with footnotes, #95

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904)

Egyptian Recruits Crossing the Desert, c. 1857

Oil on canvas

64 x 109.8 cm

Private collection

The present works represents a scene common in Egypt during the nineteenth century, when young men from the villages were conscripted into the army of the Khalif, a process which dated back to the first attempt by Mohammed Ali Pasha, to build up a regular army in 1824. As seen in the paintings, the recruits trudge across the desert, escorted by the Arnaut guard, and challenge the heat and wind making their journey long and painful. Characteristic of Gérôme's most acclaimed orientalist paintings, this intense realism prompted the French critic Théophile Gautier to note that Gérôme succeeded in capturing the peculiar qualities of light and heat unique to the Egyptian desert. He further remarked that, contrary to the current fashion for representing hot countries as torrid and highly coloured, Gérôme had observed that extreme light drains all colours from objects and renders the sky and land white. More on this work

Jean-Léon Gérôme, (1824–1904)

The Egyptian recruting officer, c. 1861

Oil on panel 

11 x 16 in. (28 x 40.5 cm.) 

Private collection 

Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period, and in addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students. More on Jean-Léon Gérôme

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