Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ

M. Köhn collection
Private collection, Canada         

Guy de Montgailhard, Catalogue des oeuvres de Lecomte du Nouÿ, Paris, 1906, no. 121 or 122 (Garde du temple à Jerusalem or A la porte d'une mosquée), translated into English in From Homer to the Harem: The Art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ, New York, 2004, p. 166

Lecomte du Nouÿ trained under Charles Gleyre and Jean-Léon Gerôme, and his meticulous style epitomises French academic teaching. Though a technique more commonly associated with French history painting, here the artist applies it to a contemporary Islamic subject and in the name of verisimilitude. The sentinel's Ottoman weapons are observed so faithfully that the artist must have seen them in the original, from the chibouk with its gilt tophane bowl and mouthpiece and lavender enamelled shaft; to the curved shamshir sword with its horn hilt; and the flintlock rifle with its ivory butt plate.

An engraving of this work by M. Rapine is held at the Musée d’art et d’archéologie d’Aurillac, France (82.13.200).