THEODOROS RALLI | The Seven Rabbis in Jerusalem

Estate of the artist, thence by descent (sale: Stavros Mihalarias Art, Athens, 26 November 1990, lot 58)

Private collection, Greece

Paris, Salon, 1907, no. 5623

Monte Carlo, 1908

Pinakothiki, no. LXXXI, November 1907, p. 152

Adolphe Thalasso, 'Orient. La peinture grècque moderne', in L'Art et les artistes, no. LVII, December 1909, p. 290-1

Adolphe Thalasso, 'Orient. Athènes. La salle Théodore Ralli à la Pinacothèque d'Athènes', in L'Art et les artistes, December 1910, p. 142

Émmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, vol. VIII, Paris, 1976, p. 589 (as held by the Louvre)

Marina Lambraki-Plaka, National Gallery 100 Years - Four Centuries of Greek Painting from the Collections of the National Gallery and the Euripidis Koutlidis Foundation, Athens, 1991, p. 96, illustrated

Maria Katsanaki, Le Peintre Théodore Ralli (1852-1909) et son oeuvre, Ph.D dissertation, Paris (Sorbonne), 2007, vol. I, p. 116; vol. II, no. 257; vol. III, illustrated fig. 89; vol. IV, p. 546, no. 337, illustrated

This large-scale genre scene portrays a rabbinic council: seven rabbis discuss the content of a scroll, read to them by an elder at the head of the table. Behind him, a high window affords a glimpse of an Eastern city, presumably Jerusalem. The full glory of Ralli's discerning eye for detail is evident in the vibrant colours of the figures' robes, the rich and varied textures of the fur hats, and the contrast between the soft-hued interior and the bright light outside.

While many of the most celebrated European artists painting Middle Eastern and Orientalist subjects created images drawn from second-hand sources and their own imaginations, Ralli was intimately familiar with his subject, and paintings such as the present work display the breadth of his knowledge. From the mid-1880s until 1904, Ralli spent each winter in his studio in Cairo where he was perfectly positioned to explore the surrounding region. He then completed his canvases in Paris, where he had honed his rigorous style of academic realism as a student of the great French Orientalist painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.

The Seven Rabbis in Jerusalem was selected by the curator of the Musée du Luxembourg to hang in the Louvre upon the death of the artist, which would seem to be the source of Bénézit's erroneous claim that the Musée du Louvre possessed a Ralli titled Les Rabbins. However, the work remained with the artist's descendants until 1990 (see Katsanaki, p. 546).