01 Painting by Orientalist Artists. Henry Guillaume Schlesinger's A harem interior, with footnotes, #99

Henry Guillaume Schlesinger (French, 1814-1893)

A harem interior, c. 1846

Oil on canvas

74 x 93cm (29 1/8 x 36 5/8in)

Private collection

Sold for £44,400 in Jun 2022

This group of eleven women form an arc which draws the viewer into the centre of the composition and concentrates the eye on the man and his costume. No detail is spared – a parrot can be seen playing with a woman whose hair is adorned with fresh roses presumably picked from the garden visible beyond the green curtain in the background. Another girl holds a mirror up to the man, as he is serenaded by a beauty. A discarded hookah, the bowl still smoking, can be seen in the foreground, the effects clearly visible in the attitude of the dark-haired woman reclining nearby. More on this painting

Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger, originally Wilhelm Heinrich Schlesinger (6 August 1814, in Frankfurt am Main – 21 February 1893, in Neuilly-sur-Seine) was a French portrait and genre painter of German birth. He was especially known for his lively and sensitive depictions of young women.

He studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, and was originally active in that city. He then moved to Paris, where he participated in the Salon from 1840 to 1889 and received two medals.

During a visit to Istanbul in 1837, he was commissioned to do several official paintings of Sultan Mahmud II, including a large equestrian portrait and one of the Sultan wearing Western-style clothing, which is now on display at the Topkapi Palace Museum. One was donated to King Louis-Philippe by Mustafa Reşid Pasha, who was then serving as Ambassador to France, and may now be seen at Versailles.

His painting "The Five Senses" was purchased by Empress Eugénie in 1865. The following year, he was named a Chevalier in the Legion of Honor and became a French citizen in 1870, just before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. During the war and the subsequent Commune, he lived in London.

In addition to oil paintings, he was a watercolorist and painted miniatures on ivory. More on Henri-Guillaume Schlesinger

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, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at  deviantart and Aaroko

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.

Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

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.