01 Painting by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 71

Georges Clairin, 1843-1919, FRENCH

FANTASIA, c. 1894

Oil on canvas

98 by 146cm., 38½ by 57½in.

Private collection

Fantasia is a traditional exhibition of horsemanship in the Maghreb, performed during cultural festivals and to close Maghrebi wedding celebrations. "Fantasia" is an imported name, the actual traditional term used is lab el baroud.

The performance consists of a group of horse riders, all wearing traditional clothes, who charge along a straight path at the same speed so as to form a line, and then at the end of the charge (about two hundred meters) fire into the sky using old muskets or muzzle-loading rifles The difficulty of the performance is in synchronizing the movement of the horses during acceleration of the charge, and especially in firing the guns simultaneously so that one single shot is heard. The horse is referred to as a fantasia horse and are of Arabian, Andalusian or Barb stock. More on Fantasia 

Georges Jules Victor Clairin (11 September 1843, Paris – Pouldu, Clohars-Carnoët 2 September 1919) was a French Oriental painter and illustrator. He was influenced by oriental painting and Moorish architecture, and visited North Africa many times, in particular Morocco and Egypt. In Paris he led the life of a socialite, and befriended the glamorous actress Sarah Bernhardt, his friend for 50 years, and is today best known for his 'in costume' and informal intimate portratits of her.

Clairin was apprenticed in the workshops of Isidore Pils and François-Édouard Picot. In 1861 he entered the École des beaux-arts de Paris, and in 1866 first displayed his work. He travelled to Spain with Henri Regnault and to Italy with François Flameng and Jean-Léon Gérôme. He met the Catalan painter Marià Fortuny in Morocco and they visited Tétouan together. In 1895, he travelled to Egypt with the composer Camille Saint-Saëns.

He is best known for his portraits of Sarah Bernhardt, with whom he had a long friendship and whom he depicted in costume for a number of her roles. More on Georges Clairin

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01 Painting by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 70

Georges Washington, 1827 - 1910, FRENCH

FORDING THE WADI

Oil on canvas

60 by 81cm., 23½ by 32in.

Private collection

Wadi is the Arabic term traditionally referring to a valley. In some instances, it may refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs.

George Washington, born 15 September 1827 in Marseille and died November 19, 1901 in Douarnenez, was a French Orientalist painter. Like most aspiring artists, the young Georges Washington moved to Paris, where he trained at the Ecole des Beaux Arts under François-Edouard Picot (1786-1868). The artist’s exotic style was also indebted to Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). Washington’s art conveys a similar feeling to the work of Eugène Fromentin (1820-76) who often painted naturalistic Middle Eastern scenes of rural and nomadic life. Washington’s love of the Middle East and its customs was further enhanced and encouraged by his father-in-law, the military and Orientalist painter Henri-Félix-Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1815-1884), whose daughter Anne-Léonie Philippoteaux married Washington in Paris on 6th August 1859.

Not long after finishing his training at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Washington embarked on the first of a number of trips to Algeria and based on close observation of its inhabitants, their dress and customs in 1857 he made his Paris debut at the Salon des Artistes Français with a view of nomads titled Plaine du Hoiina (Sahara Algérien). From then up until 1901 Washington continued to be a popular exhibitor at the Salon; one of his first works shown there to gain critical acclaim was Nomades dans le Sahara en Hiver. In addition to Paris, Washington also showed his work in Moscow in 1881 and was later posthumously honoured when four of his paintings were included in the Exposition Coloniale de Marseille in 1906.

Following two commissions from a Belgian company, he travelled to Morocco and then subsequently visited Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey, which were to inspire his varied subjects including battle scenes and cavalry skirmishes. His travels also took him to America for the unveiling in Philadelphia of a cyclorama (a monumental 360° panoramic view) of the Battle of Gettysburg by his brother-in-law Paul-Dominique Philippoteaux (1846-1923).

Following the death of his wife he retired to live with his daughter and son-in-law at Douarnenez on the Brittany coast, where he died shortly after on 19th November 1901. More George Washington

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01 Painting by Orientalist Artists, with footnotes, 69

Antonio María Fabrés y Costa, 1854-1938, SPANISH

A GIFT FOR THE FAVOURITE

Oil on panel

44.5 by 55.5cm., 17½ by 22 in.

Private collection

Antoni Maria Fabrés i Costa (Spanish: Antonio Maria Fabrés y Costa; 1854–1938), also known as Antoni Fabrés, was a famous Catalan sculptor and painter during the turn of the 20th century.

It is said that he inherited his artistic skills, as his father was a draughtsman and his uncle a silversmith. He started studying at the Escola de la Llotja in his native city at the age of 13. When he turned 21, he received a grant to study in Rome. There are records of his sculptures from early in his career but later on he became a painter almost exclusively. He joined Marià Fortuny with a group that became known for their intense realism. Their popularity grew with the taste of the bourgeoisie seeking exotic images with oriental or medieval themes. In 1894 he moved to Paris. The popularity he had earned during his decade in Italy helped him open a large studio where he could create complex scenes for the upper classes.

Antoni Fabrés was called to take the place of Santiago Rebull as head of the Academia de San Carlos in Mexico City. The faculty had a hard time adapting to his distinct style and personality. In 1907, he returned to Rome. 


Fabrés was acclaimed in Barcelona, London, Paris, Vienna and Lyon. At the end of his life he was dealt a very unfortunate blow when in 1926 he decided to donate a large number of works to the Museu de Belles Arts de Barcelona. In exchange for this generous donation he asked the Museum that a hall be built with his name, but the museum never built that hall and although he protested several times, they could never settle the argument. Antoni Fabrés died in Rome in 1938. More on Antonio Fabrés

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01 Painting by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 68

Raphael von Ambros, 1845-1895, AUSTRIAN

THE TOBACCO SELLER, CAIRO, c. 1891

Oil on panel

75 by 62cm., 29½ by 24¼in.

Private collection

Von Ambros depicts a busy tobacco stall outside a coffee shop in the streets of Cairo. On the left, two young men roll cigarettes which have been neatly hung by the merchant on his stall. On the right, a customer samples a cigarette, pondering a purchase. Above the stall on a shelf stand five glass narghile, or hookah vessels. Water pipes were an alternative method of tobacco consumption introduced to the Middle east and Europe from India. More on this painting

Born in Prague, Raphael von Ambros was a pupil of Hans Makart (1840-1884) at the famous Vienna Academy, where he would have studied alongside an extraordinary generation of Orientalist painters such as Jean Discart (French, 1856-1944), Ludwig Deutsch (1855-1935) and Rudolf Ernst (1854-1932). Like his contemporaries, Ambros found the perfect audience for his Cairo street scenes at the Paris Salon, where he exhibited from 1887. More on Raphael von Ambros

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01 Painting by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 67

Léon Belly, 1827-1877, FRENCH

GAZELLE HUNT IN EGYPT, c. 1857

Oil on canvas

74 by 145cm., 29 by 57in.

Private collection

Belly travelled to Egypt three times, in 1850, 1856, and 1857. The Gazelle Hunt was most likely worked up from sketches Belly made in 1856 during his excursion into the Sinai desert with fellow painters Narcisse Berchère and Jean-Léon Gérôme. More on this painting

Léon Auguste Adolphe Belly (1827–1877) was a French landscape painter. He was born at St. Omer, in 1827. He studied under Troyon, and in 1849 visited Barbizon where he came under the influence of Théodore Rousseau.

In 1850–1 he travelled to Greece, Syria, and the Black Sea. In 1853 he made his debut at the Paris Salon, exhibiting four landscapes of Nablus and Beirut, and of the shores of the Dead Sea, which attracted critical acclaim. In 1855–6 he visited Egypt, travelling up the Nile in the company of another painter, Edouard Imer. A second trip to Egypt in 1856 was largely spent making studies for his painting Pilgrims going to Mecca, now in the Musée d'Orsay.

As well as his paintings of Middle Eastern subjects he painted portraits and landscapes of Normandy and the Sologne throughout his career, and in 1867 bought land at Montauban. He died in Paris in 1877. More on Léon Auguste Adolphe Belly

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