Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904), The Two Majesties (Les Deux Majestés), 1883. Oil on canvas, 27 1/4 × 50 3/4 in. (69.22 × 128.91 cm). Milwaukee Art Museum, Layton Art Collection, Inc., Gift of Louis Allis. L1968.82.
This painting is remarkable for its quiet solemnity. A huge, solitary lion, the king of the beasts, gazes across the seemingly endless terrain at the majestic setting sun, thus explaining the romantic title. The eerie grandeur is dramatized by the lion's profile, the single vertical element, against the horizontal planes of the desert.
Jean Léon Gérôme embodied the artistic establishment of late nineteenth century Paris. A highly esteemed Salon painter and respected professor at the École des Beaux Arts, Gérôme recorded the daily life and customs of the people and places he saw on his many travels to North Africa and the Near East.
