Running Man, Wearing a Kaffiyeh

This study of a man wearing a kaffiyeh and carrying a rod is preparatory for the artist's painting on panel The Runners of the Pasha of 1867 (New-York Historical Society). The two runners, dressed in white with colorful belts and vests, are at the forefront of the procession of a military commander leaving the Citadel of Cairo through the Bab el-Azab gate. This study is for the runner at right, who in the painting carries a longer rod over his shoulders and is shown from a slightly different angle with more of his right leg visible. As Dominique de Font-Reaulx noted, Gerome mixed classical sources with recollections of Egypt: he has modeled the runners' poses on bronze figures of runners excavated from Herculaneum (Museo Archeologico, Naples) and contemporary photographs by Félix Bonfils of Sais Runners from Cairo.