Fellah Women Drawing Water

c. 1873–75

Gérôme traveled widely in the Near East and may have actually witnessed fellah, or peasant, women washing laundry or carrying water from a river. He painted this image, however, in his Paris studio, using a photograph taken in Egypt by a travel companion. Embellishing the original setting, the artist added the minaret of a mosque on the right and transformed leafy trees into palms to accentuate the impression of dry, hazy heat.

Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	26 1/2 x 39 7/16 in. (67.3 x 100.2 cm) Frame: 36 1/4 x 49 1/8 x 2 5/8 in. (92.1 x 124.8 x 6.7 cm)
Object Number	1955.52
Acquisition	Acquired by Sterling and Francine Clark before 1955
Status	On View

Image Caption

Jean-Léon Gérôme, Fellah Women Drawing Water, c. 1873–75, oil on canvas. Clark Art Institute, 1955.52

Select Bibliography

Paris: The Salon, 1903.. Explication catalogue. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Exhibit Four: First Two Rooms. Exhibition catalogue. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955. Stranahan, Clara Harrison. A History of French Painting. New York: Scribner's, 1888. M. H. Spielman.. "Jean-Léon Gérôme: 1824-1904, Recollections.". vol. 2.. Magazine of Art.. 1904.. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1970. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1972. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1984. Gerdts, William H. American Impressionism. New York: Abbeville Press. 1984. Edward J. Sullivan.. Claudio Bravo: Painter and Draftsman. (Exh.cat. Elvehjem Aug. 29-Oct. 18, 1987; Meadows Museum, SMU, Oct. 29-Dec. 13, 1987; Duke University Museum of Art, Jan. 29-Mar. 27, 1988).. Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art.. John Kolars.. "Trickle of Hope: Negotiating Water Rights is Critical to Peace in the Middle East.". The Sciences.. Nov./Dec. 1992.:pp. 16-22.. Kern, Steven, ed. List of Paintings in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1992. Hélène Lafont-Couturier.. Gérôme.. Paris: Editions Herscher.. 1998.. Gerald M. Ackerman.. The life and Work of Jean-Léon Gérôme, with a catalogue raisonné.. New York: Sotheby's Publications/Paris: ACR Ed. Internationale.. 1986.. Lees, Sarah, ed. Nineteenth-Century European Paintings at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute; New Haven and London: distributed by Yale University Press, 2012. Ganz, James A. and Richard R. Brettell. Great French Paintings from the Clark: Barbizon through Impressionism. Exhibition catalogue. New York: Skira Rizzoli Publications; Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2011.

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EUROPEAN PAINTINGS CATALOGUE ENTRY

Provenance

The artist, possibly sold to Goupil; [Goupil, Paris]; [John Levy Galleries, New York, sold to Clark, 29 January 1942, as View of Medinet el Fayoum, Upper Egypt]; Robert Sterling Clark (1942-55); Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1955.