Photo Credit: Saul J. Singer

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Shown here is an official etching of “The Wall of Solomon” by J. L. Gerome, one of the most familiar and beloved 19th century depictions of the Kotel. The original 1876 painting (oil on canvas) sold for $2,312,500 in 1999.

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Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904), one of the most popular and successful 19th century French painters and sculptors, specialized in technically accurate depictions of historical scenes and was known for his theatrical realist painting conceptions. His often inflammatory work led to passionate debates regarding the future of the great French painting tradition, and much of his influence began to wane when, with the advent of the Impressionist movement, he showed unabashed public hostility to its “decadent art.”

Gerome made this rendering of the Kotel as part of his exotically complex Orientalist genre work, which was inspired by the native people and brilliant landscapes of North Africa. He was particularly enamored by the bazaars, mosques, souks, and dwellings of the Levant that he encountered during his many expeditions to Egypt and Eretz Yisrael, beginning in the late 1850s. (He first traveled to Jerusalem in 1862).

In “Solomon’s Wall,” Gerome exhibits considerable solemnity as befitting a holy site, which he seems to emphasize with an almost spiritual light trickling down the wall. The detail shown on the stones is characteristic of his realist style, but he pays particular attention to the dress, gestures, and stance of the central bearded figure who stands, seemingly in awe, with his arms extended outward while looking up at the Wall. One can easily imagine the non-Jewish artist himself standing at the Western Wall and looking up in similar awe at this holy and historic structure.

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Saul Jay Singer serves as senior legal ethics counsel with the District of Columbia Bar and is a collector of extraordinary original Judaica documents and letters. He welcomes comments at at [email protected].