01 Orientalist Painting, Georg Macco's Bab Zuwayla, Cairo, with footnotes, #118

Georg Macco (German, 1863-1933)

The Orange Seller, Outside Bab Zuwayla, Cairo, c. 1907

Oil on canvas

19 x 28½ in. (48.3 x 72.4 cm.)

Private collection

In the present painting the stand of the orange seller is placed just outside the Bab Zuwayla, the Southern Gate of Cairo's Fatimid enclosure. Looking in through the archway, on the right one can see the Sabil-Kuttab of Nafisa Bayda (1796). On the left, there is an indistinct rendering of the facade of the Mosque-Mausoleum of Sultan Mu'ayyad, 1415-20. 

Its name comes from Bab, meaning "gate", and Zuwayla, as its in the Western Gate of the city that had a trade route for overland travelers. More on this painting

Bab Zuweila is one of three remaining gates in the walls of the Old City of Cairo. It was also known as Bawabbat al-Mitwali during the Ottoman period. It is considered one of the major landmarks of the city and is the last remaining southern gate from the walls of Shia Islamic Fatimid Cairo in the 11th and 12th century. More on Bab Zuweila 

Nafisa al-Bayda began her life as a slave and then was married in the mid 1700s to a man of power in the state named Ali Bey. Afterwards, she married the wealthy Murad Bey who was at first a Mamluk, but then later rose to power in 1784 and became the leader of the resistance against the Napoleon Bonaparte invasion.

Lady Nafisa al-Bayda, meaning the white one, was a woman of beauty, wealth, charity and known to be of great culture. She is also a symbol for womens participation in those days to the political life. During her husbands resistance, she played a major role in helping him acting as an intermediate between him and Napoleon. More on Lady Nafisa al-Bayda

Georg Macco (23 March 1863, Aachen - 20 April 1933, Genoa) was a German landscape painter and illustrator, associated with the Düsseldorfer Malerschule. He is primarily known for his Orientalist works.

He was inspired by stories of his great-great-uncle, the history and portrait painter Alexander Macco, who painted a portrait of the Queen of Prussia and was a close friend of Beethoven and Goethe. His artistic career began at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in 188o, where he studied with Eugen Dücker and Johann Peter Theodor Janssen until 1887. During this time, he also contributed illustrations to Die Gartenlaube and drawings of coats-of-arms for his brother, Hermann Friedrich Macco, who was an historian and genealogist.

He moved to Munich to further his studies and used that city as a base for his numerous travels, beginning with mountainous regions from Italy to Spitsbergen. Later, he travelled throughout the Mediterranean region, visiting such then-exotic locations as Istanbul, Baalbek, Jerusalem, Cairo and the vicinity of Mecca. The works he produced as a result of these travels would eventually become his most popular and sought after.

His works may be seen at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen, the Rudolfinum in Prague and the Alpines Museum in Munich. Some of his works in Aachen were previously on the "Schattengalerie" (shadow gallery) list of works looted by the Nazis during World War II. Other works, not yet displayed, have been uncovered at the Simferopol Art Museum. More on Georg Macco

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