This large acrylic on canvas painting, held within an ornate carved giltwood frame, is after Jean-Léon Gérôme’s “Solomon’s Wall” of 1876, which sold in Christie’s New York in 1999.
The painting portrays Solomon’s Wall (also known as the Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem. The wall, beautifully lighted by filtered sunlight, rises obliquely and forms most of the composition’s background. Burnt tones predominate, with grasses and other vegetation growing in the cracks between blocks lending hint of green and the corner of sky providing some lighter blue tones. Several figures, gazing at or praying by the wall, populate the foreground shade.
This present painting, likely produced early- to mid-20th Century, is an adept copy after Gérôme’s original and is a work of art in its own right.