Woman at a Balcony
1887–88
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
19 3/4 × 16 3/8 in. (50.2 × 41.6 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Kenneth Jay Lane, 2015
Accession Number
2015.282
Tags
Art Historical Context
**Woman at a Balcony (1887–88) by Jean-Léon Gôme captures a poised woman gazing from a balcony, rendered in meticulous oil on canvas (19 3/4 × 16 3/8 in.). This intimate exemplifies Gérôme's mastery as a leading French academic painter, blending Realism with Neoclassicism. Donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2015 by Kenneth Jay, it now graces the European Paintings department. érôme was a pioneer of Orientalism, a 19th-century European art movement that romanticized the exoticism of the Middle East and North Africa. Painted late in his career, amid France's colonial expansions, the w...
About the Artist
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Gérôme's father, a goldsmith from Vesoul, discouraged his son from studying to become a painter but agreed, reluctantly, to allow him a trial period in the studio of Paul Delaroche in Paris. He traveled and studied in Italy, elsewhere in Europe, and in Asia Minor. The subjects that he enjoyed most were scenes of nature and animals. He is best known for mythological and Comment on works: history pa...