Bashi-Bazouk

A man appears in profile against a dark background, his head wrapped in a richly colored silk turban, his body draped in rich fabric. The texture, sheen and patterns of the textiles are rendered with astonishing, almost tangible realism. A bashi-bazouk was an irregular mercenary soldier of the Ottoman Empire. Jean-Léon Gérôme traveled repeatedly to Egypt and the Near East, bringing back costumes and objects that he had models wear in his Paris studio. Gérôme was a leading figure of French academic and Orientalist painting. Celebrated for its virtuoso realism, the work also reflects the imaginings and exoticizing gaze of nineteenth-century Europeans toward the East, and is often discussed today in that historical context.