In the Desert

Jean Leon Gerome takes us into the desert with this painting: Heaven and earth seem to be equally light-saturated and transparent. The gaze, however, is drawn to the man sitting on the ground and his dead horse. The rider lovingly holds the head of his companion in his lap, in a relaxed attitude the animal turns its back on the observer, the hind legs lying in the sand and his tail resting on the ground. Man and beast are here a unity. The look of the sitter is completely immersed in his horse, so that both figures are perceived as a form.

At first glance, the horse seems to sleep. Or is it thirsty? The view over scorching hot desert soil and bare stone desert suggests this conclusion. Nowhere is a water hole, nowhere are plants to be identified. Life takes place here in this intense moment between rider and Ross, even if it should be a turning point of life and death. The artist has executed human and animal in such detail that one believes to feel the breathing. A powerless or dying, noble horse in the stone desert speaks metaphorically of the drama and danger, which brings a desert life with it. No protective roof, no forest or watercourse can help here. Man is exposed to the forces of nature. At the same time, the intimacy of horse and rider stands for timeless love and many experiences that both have had with each other.

Jean Leon Gerome has masterfully captured oriental life. He uses a light color palette, which captures nature in pinks, sand and light browns. Clearly demarcated from it is the rider sitting on the ground. Dressed in radiant white on the body and head, his black curls stand out from his robe: Here is a still young man ridden through the desert, perhaps lacking experience.

Cleverly, the artist places his figures a little to the left of the center in the foreground. This makes the surrounding desert almost physically tangible to the beholder: a work of great intensity!