Léon Belly
1827–1877 · France · Orientalism
The story
In 1850 the young Léon Belly joined a scientific expedition led by the archaeologist Félicien de Saulcy through Greece, Lebanon and Palestine, sketching Beirut, Nablus and the shores of the Dead Sea. Those studies, shown at the Salon of 1853, set the course of his work, and he went back to the East several times, above all to Egypt.
His best-known painting, Pilgrims Going to Mecca, shows a long caravan of camels and travellers crossing the desert toward Islam's holiest city. At the Salon of 1861 it won a first-class medal, the state bought it for the Musée du Luxembourg, and since 1983 it has belonged to the Musée d'Orsay.
