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Jean-Léon Gérôme
French, 1824–1904
Fellah Women Drawing Water
c. 1873–75
Gérôme traveled widely in the Near East and may have actually witnessed fellah, or peasant, women washing laundry or carrying water from a river. He painted this image, however, in his Paris studio, using a photograph taken in Egypt by a travel companion. Embellishing the original setting, the artist added the minaret of a mosque on the right and transformed leafy trees into palms to accentuate the impression of dry, hazy heat.
Image Caption
Jean-Léon Gérôme, Fellah Women Drawing Water, c. 1873–75, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.52
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
26 1/2 x 39 7/16 in. (67.3 x 100.2 cm)
Frame: 36 1/4 x 49 1/8 x 2 5/8 in. (92.1 x 124.8 x 6.7 cm)
Object Number
1955.52
Acquisition
Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status
On View
Select Bibliography
Stranahan, Clara Harrison. A History of French Painting. New York: Scribner's, 1888. Paris: The Salon, 1903.. Explication catalogue. M. H. Spielman.. "Jean-Léon Gérôme: 1824-1904, Recollections.". vol. 2.. Magazine of Art.. 1904.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press. 1984. Gerald M. Ackerman.. The life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, with a catalogue raisonné.. New York: Sotheby's Publications/Paris: ACR Ed. Internationale.. 1986.. Edward J. Sullivan.. Claudio Bravo: Painter and Draftsman. (Exh.cat. Elvehjem Aug. 29-Oct. 18, 1987; Meadows Museum, SMU, Oct. 29-Dec. 13, 1987; Duke University Museum of Art, Jan. 29-Mar. 27, 1988).. Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art.. John Kolars.. "Trickle of Hope: Negotiating Water Rights is Critical to Peace in the Middle East.". The Sciences.. Nov./Dec. 1992.:pp. 16-22.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Hélène Lafont-Couturier.. Gérôme.. Paris: Editions Herscher.. 1998.. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012.
Provenance
The artist, possibly sold to Goupil; [Goupil, Paris]; [John Levy Galleries, New York, sold to Clark, 29 January 1942, as View of Medinet el Fayoum, Upper Egypt]; Robert Sterling Clark (1942-55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.