A Chat by the Fireside, Jean-Léon Gérôme

Exhibition Label:
"Empire of Things," 2013, Kate Meyer
In this small but opulent painting, Gérôme depicts a casual meeting between two men and a third, less noticeable, companion-a black cat perched close to the heat of an ornate, Iznik tile fireplace. The man on the left wears the lavish costume of an Ottoman solider; he sets aside his pipe and rifle to warm his hands. A second man, barefoot and dressed in a tattered garment, pauses from lighting his pipe and looks toward his companion while they speak. Gérôme paints their foreign costumes, props, and architectural setting with his signature use of high-definition detail, evoking the interior of the Imperial Pavilion in the Yeni Cami mosque in Istanbul. Gérôme traveled to Istanbul in the 1850s, but produced his paintings in France, years later, frequently utilizing source photographs, such as the one below. Gérôme painted scores of “orientalist” subjects similarto Chat by the Fireside, often using imported costumes and French models interchangeably to create scenes set in areas as diverse as Turkey, Egypt, Africa, and ancient Greece.

Archive Label 2003:
Jean-Léon Gérôme, a successful and popular painter in France during the nineteenth century, traveled extensively, searching the lands of Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Greece, and Syria for images that would give his paintings exotic character. He studied architectural settings by use of photographs and sketches, and returned to his studio in France with a variety of objects acquired to use in his paintings.

A Chat by the Fireside, carefully composed and executed, depicts the casual meeting of two men, a guard and a servant, deep within the walls of a palace such as the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The elaborately uniformed guard has rested his rifle against the wall and set down his pipe while he warms his hands. The servant, barefoot and dressed in a tattered garment, pauses from lighting his pipe and directs his gaze toward his companion while they speak. The figures that appear in this painting were two of Gérôme’s regular models. Gérôme has signed the painting on the step of the fireplace.