The Duel After the Masquerade

The scene is set on a gray winter morning in the Bois de Boulogne, trees bare and snow covering the ground. A man dressed as a Pierrot has been mortally wounded in a duel and has collapsed into the arms of a Duc de Guise. A surgeon, dressed as a doge of Venice, tries to stop the flow of blood, while a Domino clutches his own head.

The survivor of the duel, dressed as an American native, walks away with his second, Harlequin, leaving behind his weapon and some feathers of his headdress, towards his carriage, shown waiting in the background.

It was characteristic of Gérôme to depict not a violent event itself, but the aftermath of such violence; see The Death of Caesar, The Execution of Marshal Ney, and Jerusalem. The bizarreness of the scene in regard to the brightly colored costumes turns to pathos at the sight of blood on the Pierrot.