Ask the Scholar

This drawing was recently acquired by the museum, building on the already strong collection of Gérôme’s work by adding a portrait by him of a named subject. Gérôme made this portrait on his first trip to Egypt when he was in his early thirties. Often in portraiture the subject (or “sitter”) is seen as the passive object of the artist’s scrutiny. We can ponder the power dynamics informing this work. How did Fatme, an Egyptian woman, feel about being drawn by Gérôme, a French man? Did she volunteer to be drawn, or did Gérôme select her? Was she told what to wear and how to pose? In short, what input did she have in this encounter? The meeting of Fatme and Gérôme took place at a complicated moment - Egypt was not colonialized, but rather semi-autonomous in 1855, and rapidly modernizing along European lines, but the French had invaded in the early nineteenth century, and Britain would take over in the 1880s. Although Gérôme professed racist views, reflected in his paintings, perhaps this drawing allows a more nuanced view of the encounter between Europe and the Middle East. Gérôme’s painting were collected by Abülaziz, the Ottoman Sultan, and the Ottoman-Egyptian diplomat, Khalil Bey.