Lion on the Watch, circa 1885

The print

Printed by theprintspace, the East London fine-art lab trusted by artists, galleries and museums. Each print is made to order on Hahnemühle Photo Rag, a heavyweight 308gsm paper made from 100% cotton, with a soft matte surface and a natural white tone, using archival pigment inks made to last for generations.

Photo Rag suits this painting especially well. Its matte cotton surface holds the clear blue sky and sunlit rock in a soft, even light, and keeps every detail of the mane crisp.

Sizes available:

59×42cm, 23×17″, fine art print, open edition
84×59cm, 33×23″, fine art print, open edition

Safe, tracked delivery guaranteed worldwide, with sustainable packaging.

The story

Gérôme made his name with history, mythology and a fantasy East, but animals, and lions above all, were a lifelong fascination. As a student he drew them from life at the Paris zoo, and later he travelled to North Africa, where he hunted them.

This lion does nothing at all. It stands on a pale boulder above hazy green and brown plains, with mountains in the far distance and a clear blue sky above, simply watching. The drama is all in the stillness, and in Gérôme’s famous precision.

The painting has been in the Cleveland Museum of Art since 1945.