03 Orientalist Paintings, Dance of the Almeh, with footnotes, #100

Carl Haag, German, 1820 - 1915

Dance of the Almeh, c. 1870

Watercolour over pencil on paper 

51 by 37.5cm., 20 by 14¾in.

Private collection

The title of this painting refers to the Arabic word analeim, meaning learned woman, which originally applied to professional female improvisers of songs and poems.  By 1850, the term meant virtually any woman dancer.  Their alluring dances, accompanied as shown here by musician playing a two-stringed cello.  European travelers came to think of these dances as a required part of their experience of the Orient.  More on Dance of the Almeh

Carl Haag (20 April 1820 – 24 January 1915) was a Bavarian-born painter who became a naturalized British subject and was court painter to the duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.

Haag was born in Erlangen, in the Kingdom of Bavaria, and was trained in the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and at Munich. He first practised as an illustrator and as a painter in oils of portraits and architectural subjects; but in 1847 he settled in England, after which he devoted himself to watercolours, and in 1850 was elected an associate of the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours before becoming a full member in 1853. He travelled a lot, especially in the East, and made a considerable reputation by his firmly drawn and carefully elaborated paintings of Eastern subjects.

Towards the end of his professional career, Carl Haag left England and returned to the newly united German Empire, where he died in Oberwesel. More Carl Haag

Jean-Léon Gérôme, (1824–1904), French

Dance of the Almeh, c. 1863

Oil on wood panel

19 3/4 x 32 inches

 The Dayton Art Institute

Gérôme showed the painting at the 1864 Salon, the official annual exhibition in Paris.  Although Gérôme was by then securely established, Dance of the Almeh was highly controversial.  Though apparently popular with the public and with some critics, the painting provoked others to complain about its overt appeal to sexual sensibilities, some claiming that it was too immoral to be publicly shown.  The controversy seems to have had little effect on Gérôme’s career, as he attracted scores of European and American artists to study with him until the very end of his long career. More on this painting

Jean-Léon Gérôme

Sabre Dance in a Cafe, c. 1875

58.5 x 80 cm

Oil on canvas

Herbert F. Johnson museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Drawing on the pictorial and literary imagination of his time, Gérôme invented oriental scenes, using meticulously accurate detail and his open recourse to photographs taken during his trips to disguise his strategy. The Orient that Gérôme depicted was dreamed up by Victor Hugo in 1829 in his poetic work Orientales, and his “authentic” images at that time confirmed a view of the Orient as a place of sensuality and violence. More on this painting

Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period, and in addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students. More on Jean-Léon Gérôme

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02 Orientalist Paintings, Hugh Joseph Ward's Desert Madness, with footnotes, #99

Hugh Joseph Ward (American, 1909-1945)

Desert Madness

Oil on canvas

20 x 14 inches (50.8 x 35.6 cm)

Private collection

Hugh Joseph Ward (American, 1909-1945)

The Price

Oil on canvas

35 x 23 in.

Private collection

Hugh Joseph Ward (March 8, 1909 – February 7, 1945), is primarily known for the "Spicy" cover art he did for pulp magazines. His paintings for these covers almost always portrayed a beautiful woman (often modeled by his lovely wife Viola) fleeing for her life from a thug or some fiendish monster or another, sometimes in little more than her under garments!

Ward was born Hugh Joseph Ward (commonly referred to as H. J. Ward) on March 8, 1909 in South Philadelphia, the youngest of eight children. He attended the Philadelphia College of Art. In the early 1930s he started a career doing cover art for pulp magazines most notably "the Spicy Pulps." These magazines covers depicted the usual genres of Detective, Horror, Mystery, Science-Fiction, Western, etc.

The original paintings that were done for these covers are primarily in oil on stretched canvas usually 24" x 30." Ward's prolific life was cut short, on February 7,1945 he was to pass away at the young age of thirty-six leaving behind a young family to bare the loss. More on Hugh Joseph Ward 

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints and 365 Days, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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01 Orientalist Painting, Dean Cornwell's Revenge, with footnotes, #103

Dean Cornwell (American, 1892-1960)

Revenge, c. 1935

Oil on board

27-1/2 x 21-3/4 inches (69.9 x 55.2 cm)

Private collection

Dean Cornwell, born in 1862, was an American artist who was best known as a muralist and for his famous illustrations in national magazines including Harper's Bazaar, Redbook and Cosmopolitan. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and as a child observed his civil engineer father do industrial drawings, which led to his interest in art.

Cornwell studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and built his career as a cartoonist for the Lousiville Herald and the Chicago Tribune. Cornwell illustrated the works of some of the most famous names in the literary world, including Edna Ferber, Ernest Hemingway, Pearl S. Buck, and Somerset Maugham. He also created murals for the 1939 World's Fair, Bethlehem Steel and the General Motors Building in New York City.

Cornwell's spectacular murals grace buildings throughout the country. Some of the most well known are at 10 Rockefeller Center, the Los Angeles Public Library which illustrates the history of California, and the Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. The Los Angeles Public Library and Redlands projects took five years to complete. Cornwell had contacts with major companies including Palmolive, Coca Cola, Squibb, Seagram's Gin, and New York Life.

Some of Cornwell's most famous murals and ads include the Natchez/Lee Paddlwheel Race, Ivory Soap, Woodbury Soap, The Pennsylvania Railroad, and the"Spirit of 1943." Illustrations, murals, and ads created by Cornwell helped to promote the war effort during the 1940s.

During his career, Cornwell was elected to the National Academy of Design and was president of the Society of Illustrators. Dean Cornwell died in 1960. More on Dean Cornwell

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

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Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.