49. Léon Adolphe Auguste Belly (Saint-Omer 1827-1877 Paris) Large grazing camel, study for one of the pilgrims going to Mecca sale stamp (lower right), with several labels on the back oil on canvas with sale stamp (lower right), also with various labels on the reverse oil on canvas 60.7 x 50cm (23 7/8 x 19 11/16in). Provenance The artist's family where purchased from the above in 1993 by anonymous Anon. sale, Sotheby's, Paris, 15 June 2017, lot 227 Exhibition Paris, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition des oeuvres de Léon Belly, 1878, n°53 (belonging to Madame Belly) Probably, Paris, Galerie Durand-Ruel, Cinquième exposition des peintres orientalistes français, retrospective Léon Belly, 1898, n°18 Saint-Omer, Musée de l'Hôtel Sandelin, Le Centenaire de Léon Belly, Retrospective, 1977, n°34 Literature Conrad de Mandach, Artistes contemporains, Léon Belly, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, article mentioning the studies for the final painting, 1913, p. 154 The present painting is a preparatory study for Belly's orientalist masterpiece Les Pèlerins allant à la Mecque, now at the Musée d'Orsay (RF 61), exhibit at the Salon in 1861.