Wailing Wall of Solomon Antique Art Print ~ Gerome

Antique Goupil & Cie. photogravure art print from the picture by Jean Leon Gerome.

Printed on mid-weight ivory colored stock. Reverse side is blank.

Title: The Wall of Solomon

Publication: The Masterpieces of French Art

Publication Year: 1883

Approximate Page Size (in inches): 11 x 14

Approximate Image Size (in inches): 7 x 9½

Condition: Very good with some light foxing, mainly in margin area. Atticpaper.com watermark does not appear on actual print.

The Jews of Jerusalem and the neighboring cities are in the habit of going on a certain day, once a year, to weep and wail before a wall which they believe to be a part of the original Temple of King Solomon, unaltered by Herod and unspoiled by Titus. Here we see the types of venerable Rabbis, with their Semitic profiles, their wealth of crisped locks, their rich and trailing gaberdines, fondly caressing the venerable stones, kissing the joints of the wall, carrying off the tufts of weeds for souvenirs, bruising themselves against the rough ruins in fond embraces. Through their thoughts passes that exquisite series of psalms which used to be sung by pilgrim Hebrews as they walked in happy bands to the Temple at Pentecost, in the day of its splendor and greatness. "I had rather be the doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of wickedness." The glories of the day when the Temple was a sacred trysting-place, a mystery of holiness with its incense and impenetrable Veil, has changed in these days to devastation and ruin. But the stones remain, one upon the other, and the ancient Hebrew can magnify them through his tears into the rich masterpiece of Tyrian architecture which arose in grandeur for Solomon, without noise of hammer or of saw.