Interior of the Palais des Thermes

François-Marie, known as Marius Borrel, a former pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme, is an artist with a unique career, an engraver and also an animalier accompanying the scientific expeditions of Prince Albert I of Monaco. 

His depiction of the frigidarium, showcased at the 1887 Salon, is notable not only for its chromatic treatment, which enhances the mineral atmosphere and the sense of museum accumulation, but also for its representation of the ephemeral display of the grand Castilian altarpiece by the master of Riofrio on the northern wall. Consisting of nine panels painted in a Gothic framework of niches and columns, this large-scale work, acquired in 1876, was dismantled shortly afterwards in 1890. The panels are now on display at the Goya Museum in Castres, which houses the largest collection of Iberian paintings in France.

François-Marius BORREL (1866, Paris – 1937), "Interior of the Palais des Thermes; Musée de Cluny"

Signed and dated at the bottom right.
Presented at the 1887 Salon de Paris, under No. 293.