# Lion on the Watch

- By: Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, 1824–1904)
- Date: c. 1885
- Medium: oil on wood panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: Framed: 105 x 133 x 13.5 cm (41 5/16 x 52 3/8 x 5 5/16 in.); Unframed: 72.3 x 100.5 cm (28 7/16 x 39 9/16 in.)
- Culture: France, 19th century
- Credit line: Gift of Mrs. F. W. Gehring in memory of her husband, F. W. Gehring
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/1945.25)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1945.25/1945.25_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In addition to his fascination with the classical past, Gérôme was one of the leading painters of "orientalist" subjects-exotic and romantic themes inspired by Napoleonic adventures abroad, romantic literature, and European colonialism. From 1855, Gérôme travelled regularly in Turkey, Egypt, and Asia Minor. Long fascinated by African animals, he sketched lions in the Paris zoo as a student and later hunted them on safari in North Africa.