Le Marchand de tapis

Gérôme painted this Cairo carpet market around 1887, when Egypt was firmly on the European tourist map and drawing French and British visitors in large numbers. He had been travelling to the region since the 1850s and had visited this very rug market, the Court of the Rug Market in old Cairo, in 1885. He set the scene in a sunlit courtyard used as a warehouse and salesroom for carpets. Buyers crouch over rugs spread on the ground, inspecting the weave, while dealers look on. What holds the picture together is the enormous carpet unrolled from the upper gallery and hung down the wall, so its whole pattern can be read at once.