![Jean-Léon Gérôme - The Grain Threshers, Egypt [1859]](http://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8185/28932387864_c97c1c020c_b.jpg)
In the same family for over a century and unseen in public since the 1860s, the present work is a significant rediscovery, and a landmark work in Gérôme's Orientalist œuvre. According to Gerald Ackerman, such was Emperor Napoleon III's admiration for the present work that he attempted to purchase it through the Comte de Nieuwerkerke, but was unsuccessful.
Following his first trip to Egypt in 1856, Gérôme exhibited Orientalist subjects for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1857, winning praise notably from the critic Théophile Gautier. Exhibiting non-Orientalist subjects at the next Salon in 1859, in 1861 Gérôme exhibited six works, included notably the scandalous Phryné devant le tribunal, with the present work as the only Egyptian subject. Ackerman identifies these three Salons as the most important of the artist's career, at a time when Gérôme was at the height of his powers.
[Sotheby’s, London - Oil on canvas, 43 x 75 cm]