Jean-Léon Gérôme

Post Collection (and sold, Roos, Amsterdam, April 14, 1881, lot 33, illustrated, as La Mosquée)
Van Eeghlen (acquired at the above sale)
Arthur Atwater Kent, Sr. (1873-1949) (and sold, his sale, with auctioneer Roy J. Goldenberg, Los Angeles, November 3, 1949)
Private Collector (acquired at the above sale)
Thence by descent 

Le Figaro illustré, July 1901, illustrated
Oeuvres de J. L. Gérôme, (Bibliothèque nationale, Paris), III, 4
Gerald M. Ackerman, The Life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, London, 1986, p. 294, no. 510, illustrated
Gerald M. Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme, monographie révisée, catalouge raisonné mis à jour, Paris, 2000, p. 366, no. 510, illustrated p. 367 (as lost)

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This work is in beautiful condition. The canvas is unlined. There is a small reinforcement on the reverse of the upper left, where a 1 inch by ½ inch restoration has been applied. There is a small restoration beneath the right elbow of the standing figure. There are some tiny dots of retouch on the floor in the lower left. The extreme edges and a few other isolated spots in the upper right are the only other areas which have received retouching.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

In the 1860s, Gérôme began a series of paintings depicting Muslim men at prayer.  Set outdoors, on rooftops, and inside mosques, madrasas, and other religious and domestic structures throughout the Middle East, these meditative images became some of the artist's most popular and widely reproduced exhibited works and the most coveted possessions of museums and private collectors in America, Europe, and beyond.  The present picture, unseen for over half a century, may be considered a leading example of this illustrious group.

Gérôme’s intense interest in the art and architecture of Islam, and its pervasive influence on Middle Eastern daily life, is evidenced by the numerous architectural and ethnographic sketches he made abroad and by the calculated itineraries he followed, particularly in Egypt and in Turkey.  In Istanbul in 1875, Gérôme visited at least fifteen mosques, his celebrity allowing him unprecedented access to the city’s foremost religious and historic sites.  (A guest of the Sultan, Gérôme was commissioned on this trip to create paintings for the palaces of Dolmabaghtché [Dolmabahçe] and Tcheragan [Çirağan].)  Among Gérôme’s favorite mosques were the New Mosque (Mosque of the Valide Sultan), the Sultan Ahmet (Blue) Mosque, and Rüstem Pasha, all of which were featured in whole or in part in subsequent pictures.  (Gérôme‘s extensive library of drawings, photographs, and physical souvenirs enabled the artist to create countless compelling images even decades after his travels had ended.)  Hagia Sophia, arguably Istanbul’s most popular attraction among nineteenth-century travellers and artists, must have been influential as well.  In the present work, the Ottoman tughra (medallions filled with the sultans’ calligraphic monograms) recall the interior decorative schemes of this awesome site, as do the columns and arcades in the background.

As seen in The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Prayer in the Mosque (1871), the present work features many of the figurative and formal elements for which Gérôme’s scenes of prayer – and indeed his most successful Orientalist works - were best known.  A single figure stands silhouetted against a darkened yet architecturally distinctive backdrop, his silken robes crafted from the most vibrant of confectionery colors.  He raises his hands, palms facing outward, as if to recite “Allah-o-Akbar” (“God is Great”).  This expressive gesture was part of the prayer ritual, and was usually made during Qiyam.  (Gérôme derived the postures of his praying figures from the most reliable of sources, including first hand observation, photographic documents, and the published works of such renowned Orientalist scholars as Edward William Lane.)  The man’s back is turned to the viewer – an unusual conceit that Gérôme had considered and abandoned in at least one other of his prayer paintings, as contemporary documents attest.  In a letter to the dealer Knoedler, Gérôme explained: “Prayer in the Mosque had been reserved by Monsieur Simon and I remember that he made me put a figure facing the spectator, by saying that since all the others were seen from the back or in profile, it would not sell.  I did as he wanted because his reasons were commercially sound,”  (Letter to Knoedler, June 8, 1903, Custodia foundation, Fritz Lugt collection, Netherlands Institute, Paris).  The artist’s decision to risk the vagaries of the art market and forego a frontal view has here the added consequence of challenging the very tenets of the Islamic faith: the fact that the standing figure does not face the intricately carved wooden minbar, as do the other seated Arabs who listen intently to the oral delivery of the Friday sermon, removes Gérôme’s painting from the world of rote or ethnographic documentation and elevates it to a highly imaginative art.

Prière dans la mosquée was last sold in 1949 as part of A. Atwater Kent's estate auction held at Capo di Monte, his hilltop estate in Bel-Air, Los Angeles. An American success story, Kent was born to modest means, and built a North Philadelphia radio manufacturing company that by the late 1920s was the largest in the United States. Atwater Kent radios were prized for both their high quality and elegant design. After the Great Depression forced the closing of his business, Kent focused on philanthropic efforts, including the restoration of the Betsy Ross House in Center City Philadelphia and the founding of the Atwater Kent Museum (the city's history museum).  Retirement brought Kent first to Florida and then Los Angeles, where he was remembered for his lavish parties held at his twenty-nine room mansion, which housed a collection of around 370 paintings by artists as diverse as John Singer Sargent, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Jean-Léon Gérôme.

This catalogue note was written by Dr. Emily M. Weeks.