Pool in a Harem

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Pool in a Harem: Jean-Leon Gerome

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Jean-Leon Gerome Oil Painting - Pool in a Harem

Keywords: Pool, Harem

Work Overview: Pool in a Harem
Gérôme, Jean-Léon
c. 1876
Oil on canvas
73,5x62 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

This painting was acquired by the Russian emperor Alexander III at the 1876 Salon in Paris. Prior to acceding to the throne in 1881, Alexander traveled extensively throughout Europe.

Throughout his artistic career Gérome made numerous visits to the Orient - to Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Sinai. His unfailing interest in the depiction of scenes from the life of the Muslim world gave him a reputation as an "ethnographic" artist, of which he was very proud. His orientalizing compositions are often of great documentary value. Gérome produced very precise representations not only of exotic costume, architecture and interiors, but also of different ethnic types. In the Hermitage painting we see a Turkish bath in a harem. In the centre, lit through a window in the ceiling, we see two white women and a dark-skinned slave; in the depth, by the pool, are the smaller figures of naked odalisques. With pedantic care Gérome painted the figures and the details of the setting: the smooth surface of the marble floor, the coloured tiles, the furniture and the clothing. The style of Gérome's oriental works, realistic in content and classicizing in technique, is often described as "academic realism".

Pool in a Harem was painted in 1875 by order of the great prince Alexander Alexandrovich (the future emperor Alexander III) and was on display at the 1876 Salon under the name Turkish Women at Bath; later, it was one of the works of art that made up a continuous exhibition of French painting of the 19th century. On March 22nd, 2001, the painting was barbarically ripped from its frame and stolen from the halls of the State Hermitage Museum. In December 2006, it was found in Moscow, and on January 29th, 2007, it was returned to the Hermitage.

The condition of the painting when it was returned was characterized as disastrous. The canvas was crumpled, the fragile fibers of the thin base layer had frayed and suffered friction damage. A cross-shaped perforation had formed along the fold lines, which separated the painting into four parts that were held together by only a few threads.

From 2007 to 2009, this work by the French master underwent a complex process of restoration in the State Hermitage Museum’s Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of Easel Oil Paintings (T.P. Alyoshina, artist-restorer of the highest category, M.V. Shulepova, artist-restorer of the first category).

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Jean-Leon Gerome

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