The Socerer's Slave

"The Sorcerer's Slave" was executed in Paris while Dewing was studying at the Académie Julian. It is an académie, a full-length study of a nude painted from the live model. The classical treatment of the figure of the young boy, with its elongated contrapposto and careful articulation of anatomical detail, as well as the setting -the palm fronds, the smoking censer, and the elk-skin rug - recall the mannered bodies and Orientalist themes favored by Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre, Dewing's instructors at the Julian.