01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 15

Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils, (FRENCH 1813-1875)

Family at doorway preparing cous-cous

Oil on canvas 

90 x 67cm (35.5 x 26.25in) 

Private collection

Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils (19 July 1813/15, Paris – 3 December 1875, Paris) was a French painter. Pils was born in Paris. At the age of twelve, he studied with Guillaume Guillon-Lethière for four years. He later studied under François-Édouard Picot.

By 1840 he'd been admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts and was competing for the Prix de Rome, which he won in 1841 for a history painting, St. Peter Healing a Lame Man at the Door of the Temple. Although in poor health, Pils then spent the customary three years at the French Academy in Rome at the Villa Medici, which then had Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres as its director. While in Italy he visited Naples, Venice, and Florence.

After experiences travelling with French troops through the Crimea, his themes took on military and nationalistic subjects. He later produced many military scenes during the siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Pils was appointed professor of painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1863 but left the same year for two years in Algeria. In 1868 he was elected to Académie des Beaux-Arts. More on Isidore-Alexandre-Augustin Pils

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01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 19

Charles Wilda, 1854 - 1907, GERMAN

A SOUK IN CAIRO, c. 1887

Oil on panel

63 by 47cm., 25 by 18½in.

Private collection

Open air markets in Old Cairo are called a “souk” in Arabic. You’ll find these types of markets in all Middle Eastern countries.  The tradition of buying and selling, haggling and bargaining among the crowds has being going on for centuries already.

Charles Wilda (born December 20, 1854 in Vienna as Karl Wilda , † June 11, 1907 ibid) was an Austrian painter of Viennese Orientalism . Wilda studied as a pupil of the painter Leopold Carl Müller at the Vienna Academy . He belonged to the center of Austrian Oriental painting.

In his paintings, the daily life in Cairo, where he frequented, played the most important role. His paintings have titles such as "The Snake Charmer" or "The Storyteller". In 1892 he undertook an Egyptian journey with the same-age sculptor Arthur Strasser.

Since 1880s, he exhibited almost regularly at the Vienna Annual Exhibition , the Berlin International Art Exhibition , the Munich Annual Exhibition or the Dresden International Art Exhibition . At the Paris World Exposition in 1900 he was well represented with some of his works. 


The tomb of Charles Wilda at the Vienna Central Cemetery, designed by Hella Unger, 1909. More on Charles Wilda

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01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 16

Arthur von Ferraris, 1856-1936, HUNGARIAN

THE ARMOURER’S SHOP, c. 1893

Oil on canvas

60 by 89cm., 23½ by 35in.

Private collection

In painting Ferraris demonstrates his skill both as a draughtsman and as an acute observer of Egyptian society. From the array of weapons including kilij swords and khanjar knives, to the costumes of the shopkeepers and their client, deep in negotiation, every detail is painstakingly observed and minutely rendered, offering up a fascinating visual document of the vibrancy of life in the streets of Cairo at the turn of the century. Ferraris's fastidious attention to detail reflects the influence of his teacher, Jean-Léon Gérôme, at whose encouragement Ferraris travelled to Cairo in the winter of 1885 in the company of Ludwig Deutsch.  More on this painting

Arthur Von Ferraris (1856 - c.1928) was born in 1856 in Galkovitz, Hungary.  Like so many European regions in 1848, Hungary experienced a major reform movement—in this case to oust the longstanding Hapsburg rulers in Vienna.  

Von Ferraris’ first move was to Vienna during his teenage years.  His first teacher was the Viennese artist, Joseph Matthaus, who specialized in portrait painting.  He did not stay long in Vienna however, leaving for Paris in 1876.

After settling into life in Paris, von Ferraris studied with Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian, and then with Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.  He began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1881, just a year after beginning his studies with Gérôme. 

Iin the winter of 1884-85 he traveled to Egypt with his friend, Ludwig Deutsch, an Austrian painter who was also living in Paris.  Undoubtedly Gérôme encouraged the trip.  Von Ferraris and Deutsch spent a productive winter in Cairo, returning to Paris with a wealth of drawings, oil sketches and possibly photographs.  

By the late 1880s, von Ferraris had set up a studio with another Orientalist painter, Charles Wilda.  He continued to paint society portraits—a reliable source of income with wealthy clients.  Von Ferraris exhibited many of his society portraits at the annual Salon.

His Orientalist paintings were regularly shown at the Salon throughout the late 1880s and early 1890s.   Von Ferraris also won honorable mentions at both of the world fairs, the Exposition Universelle, in Paris in 1889 and 1900.

In 1893, he left Paris for Budapest, where he stayed for the next two years. By 1894, he left Budapest for Vienna, and began to exhibit his work in Berlin as well.  Turn-of-the-century Vienna the Vienna Secession group (led by Gustave Klimt) was proclaiming that art should be free—especially from the stodgy, provincial thinking at the tradition-bound Künstlerhaus.  Von Ferraris seems not only to have supported the ideas of the Secession reform group, but also to have become a member in 1898, shortly after it was founded.  

He traveled frequently throughout the Middle East, but also exploring Palestine.  Significantly, his reputation as a society portraitist continued to bring steady, financially rewarding work from international clients.  He made several trips to New York City where he achieved a certain social status for having painted the portrait of John Davison Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil. More on Arthur Von Ferraris

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01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 16

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger, (FRENCH 1824 - 1888)

Aristocratic ladies promenading at the city walls, c. 1869

Oil on canvas

73 x 50cm

Private collection

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (25 April 1824 – October 1888) was a French figure painter known for his classical and Orientalist subjects. He was born at Paris in 1824, and orphaned at age 14 His uncle and guardian subsequently sent him to the studio of Pierre-Jules Jollivet and then to Delaroche in 1840. In 1849 took the Prix de Rome with his painting, Ulysses, a work which combined a classical approach with Orientalist overtones.

In 1845, he first visited Algeria and this gave him an interest in Orientalist themes. Boulanger's knowledge of Pompeii, which he visited while studying at the École de Rome, also gave him ideas for many future works. His paintings are prime examples of academic art of the time, particularly history painting. Boulanger had visited Italy, Greece, and North Africa, and his paintings reflect his attention to culturally correct details and skill in rendering the female form.


He began teaching at the Institut de France in 1882 and was an influential teacher, noted for his dislike of the Impressionism. More on Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger

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