Arab Kneeling in Prayer
Charles Bargue (French, 1826-1883)ca. 1883
The Walters Art Museum
Baltimore, United States
This may be a study for a lost painting or an illustration known only as a grisaille (a monochrome) titled "Arabs at Prayer," which shows a group of men, seen from behind, in the interior of a mosque. This lost work is reproduced on page 305 of Gerald A. Ackerman's annotated reissued version of the drawings course that Bargue put together with fellow French academic painter, Jean-Léon Gérôme. This became the leading resource for teaching drawing in the second half of the 19th century.
"Arab Kneeling in Prayer" was one of four drawings purchased in June 1883 from Goupil by George Lucas, William T. Walters' primary dealer in Paris. Walters' interest in images of prayer dated back to the early 1860s, when he filled two entire albums with such works.
- Title: Arab Kneeling in Prayer
- Creator: Charles Bargue (French, 1826-1883)
- Date Created: ca. 1883
- Subject Keywords: man; prayer; devotion; genre; biblical/religious
- External Link: For more information about this and thousands of other works of art in the Walters Art Museum collection, please visit art.thewalters.org
- Roles: Artist: Charles Bargue (French, 1826-1883)
- Provenance: Goupil, Paris; purchased by William T. Walters (through George A. Lucas as agent), Baltimore, 1883; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.
- Object Type: drawings
- Medium: charcoal on smooth, moderately thick, cream wove paper
- Inscriptions: [Signature] Lower right in black ink: C. Bargue
- Exhibitions: The Essence of Line: French Drawings from Ingres to Degas. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham; Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma. 2005-2006., Charles Bargue: The Art of Drawing. Dahesh Museum of Art, New York. 2003-2004., The Orientalists. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987-1988., Gérôme and His Circle: Travel, Art, and Business in the Middle East. 2015-2016.
- Dimensions: H: 10 1/2 x W: 7 3/8 in. (26.7 x 18.7 cm); Mat H: 19 1/4 x W: 14 1/4 in. (48.9 x 36.2 cm)
- Credit Line: Acquired by William T. Walters, 1883
- Classification: Painting & Drawing
- Accession Number: 37.1328
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