This carefully squared drawing is a preparatory study for Gérôme’s Marchand
ambulant au Caire (fig. 1), painted in 1869. The painting, exhibited at the
Paris Salon that year, depicts an itinerant trader carrying a lance, helmet and
an assortment of goods through the streets of Cairo.

The drawing concentrates on the figure of the merchant himself. Gérôme delineates
the turbaned head and beard with particular clarity, while the rest of the body
is articulated in simple outlines, leaving much of the drapery schematic. The
squared grid indicates its use as a transfer drawing, ensuring precise
enlargement onto the canvas. The juxtaposition of weapons and fabrics - the
lance carried upright, the helmet hanging from the arm - points to the dual
nature of the merchant’s trade, offering both military and decorative objects.

In the finished painting, Gérôme framed the solitary figure against a sunlit wall
of polychrome stonework, transforming him into a symbol of dignity and
endurance. Critics of the time admired the work for its archaeological
precision and photographic detail. The contrast between the brisk economy of
line in the study and the finished canvas’s jewel-like finish illustrates
Gérôme’s working process: a foundation of academic draughtsmanship refined into
an Orientalist tableau of dazzling realism.