Jean Léon Gérôme

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Jean Léon Gérôme
1824-1904
Running Man, Wearing a Kaffiyeh
ca. 1855
Graphite on paper.
11 5/8 x 8 1/2 in. (295 x 216 mm)
Bequest of John M. Thayer.
2005.85
Notes: 

This study of a man wearing a kaffiyeh and carrying a rod is preparatory for the artist's painting on panel The Runners of the Pasha of 1867 (New-York Historical Society). The two runners, dressed in white with colorful belts and vests, are at the forefront of the procession of a military commander leaving the Citadel of Cairo through the Bab el-Azab gate. This study is for the runner at right, who in the painting carries a longer rod over his shoulders and is shown from a slightly different angle with more of his right leg visible. As Dominique de Font-Reaulx noted, Gerome mixed classical sources with recollections of Egypt: he has modeled the runners' poses on bronze figures of runners excavated from Herculaneum (Museo Archeologico, Naples) and contemporary photographs by Félix Bonfils of Sais Runners from Cairo.

Inscription: 

Signed in black crayon at lower right, "JL Gérome".

Provenance: 
John M. Thayer (1945-2004), Wilmington, DE.
Associated names: 

Thayer, John M. (John MacLane), 1944-2004, former owner.

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