Prayer in the Mosque
Artist: Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904)
Original Dimensions: 35" x 29 1/2"
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
About Artwork: (1871) "Gérôme’s title supplies just enough information to identify the subject as prayer in a mosque, a Muslim house of worship, announcing a world that the artist presumed was unfamiliar to fellow Europeans. The scene is rendered with impressive precision, imbuing the picture with a sense of authenticity: note the scuffs in the red velvet garments worn by the man in the foreground. However, Gérôme brought together elements that, in combination, are not accurate to any given place, time, or custom. He based the interior on the ʿAmr ibn al-ʿAs Mosque in Cairo, first constructed about 642 CE, but he probably did not witness a service there." - (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)

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