Prayer in the Mosque

A vast mosque interior with red-and-white striped arches and rows of columns recedes into shadow. Worshippers kneel and stand across the marble floor while pigeons gather near a figure in red robes and turban beside a rug. Oil on canvas, with precise perspective and warm, raking light.

Look closer: A small figure of a man in a white robe stands near the left colonnade, partly hidden by columns.

Artist

Jean-Léon Gérôme

Date

by 1874

Medium

Oil on canvas

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3137 × 3707 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Bequest of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe, 1887