ABSTRACT
An oil sketch by Jean-Léon Gérôme acquired by the Ashmolean Museum shows the temple of Luxor as many 19th century visitors would have first viewed it – from the river, the long axial structure steadily diminishing in height from its entrance pylon through its columned sanctuaries. When Gérôme first saw it in 1857, one of the two obelisks at the front had already been taken to Paris but the rest of the temple was untouched, encumbered around and within by mud-brick houses. The sketch is a charming study in soft grey-blues and sandy-browns, the great monument silhouetted against a pearly sky and shimmering in reflection on the water. Gérôme's 'The Prisoner' is typical of one category of 19th century painting in which pharaonic architecture is combined with the life of contemporary Egypt –with a narrative purpose and to atmospheric effect.
