10 Orientalist Paintings by Artists from the 19th Century, with footnotes, #14

Orientalism is a term that is used for the depiction of aspects in Middle Eastern cultures. It refers to the works of the Western artists on Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia, during the 19th century. Depictions of Islamic "Moors" and "Turks" can be found in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. A creative apprehension of a completely different world with its own laws, customs, special attitude towards life and death, love, feelings, and beauty. Wikipedia/Yana Naumovna Lukashevskaya

David Roberts, R.A., 1796-1864

RUINS OF THE GREAT TEMPLE AT KARNAK, SUNSET, c. 1845

Oil on canvas

145 by 237cm., 57 by 93in

Private Collection

‘In this illustrious piece of architecture, the artist has introduced a feeling, poetry and effect, which are among the highest attributes of genius. And yet every figure and feature of the scene are studied with the most perfect accuracy. The sun sets on the Libyan hills and, on the lower grounds, tinging them with a pervading glow of ruddy light, which is marvellously beautiful; and on the left is a sheet of water, deliciously reflecting the cool against the warm colour, and hemmed in by straight lines, so as to be as fine a contrast to the rugged and irregular shapes of the mountains. A splendid work.’ (Literary Gazette, 10 May 1845, p. 298)

In 1845 when his reputation was at its zenith, Roberts exhibited the present picture, one of his largest paintings to be shown at the Royal Academy. Its full title was given in the catalogue, Ruins of the Great Temple of Karnak, in Upper Egypt, Looking Towards the Libyan Chain of Hills, Called Baban el Malouk (the Gate of the Kings) in which the Excavated Tombs of the King of Thebes – Sunset. “Karnac is one of the Five Great Temples still Left of Thebes, the Ancient Capital of Upper Egypt. Profane History is Silent in Respect to it, and Records Only its Capture by Cambyses, King of Persia, son of Cyrus the Great, in the Year 526 B.C., and of its Final Destruction by Ptolomy Lathyrus, After a Protracted Siege of Three Years, 81 B.C. More Great Temple of Karnak

David Roberts RA (b Stockbridge [now a district of Edinburgh], 24 Oct. 1796; d London, 25 Nov. 1864). Scottish painter. He was apprenticed to a house painter, then worked as a scene painter for theatres in Edinburgh and Glasgow. In 1822 he settled in London and worked at the Drury Lane Theatre with his friend Clarkson Stanfield. From 1833 he travelled widely in Europe and the Mediterranean basin and made a fortune with his topographical views.

He worked in oil and watercolour and published lavishly illustrated books, among them the six-volume Views in the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia (1842–9). His work can be monotonous when seen en masse, but at his best he combines bold design with precise observation. More David Roberts

Enrico Coleman, 1846-1911, ITALIAN

THE SKIRMISH

Oil on canvas

57 by 94cm., 22½ by 37in.

Private Collection

Enrico Coleman (21 June 1846 – 14 February 1911)  was an Italian painter of British nationality. He was taught to paint by his father. Following the mocking reception of his Una mandria di bufali nelle paludi pontine, a naturalistic painting, at the International Artist's Club in 1872, he reportedly began to paint genre subjects in the manner of the then fashionable Mariano Fortuny. At the instigation of Nino Costa he soon returned to the depiction of the people, animals and landscapes of the Campagna Romana and the Agro Pontino.

In 1885, Coleman was among the founding members of the group In Arte Libertas. Coleman had six paintings in the first exhibition of the group, which took place in 1886.

Coleman had a remarkable collection of indigenous orchids, which he cultivated himself at his house at 6 via Valenziana. He successfully hybridised Orchis provincialis var. pauciflora and Orchis mascula var. rosea; the botanist Fabrizio Cortesi named the hybrid Orchis colemanii Cortesi in his honor.

Enrico Coleman never married. He kept his British nationality throughout his life, but never visited Britain. More Enrico Coleman

John William Waterhouse, 1849–1917

Consulting the Oracle, c. 1884

Oil paint on canvas

1194 x 1981 mm

Tate

Miracles, magic and the power of prophecy are common themes in Waterhouse's art. In this picture he shows a group of seven young girls, sitting in a semicircle round a lamplit shrine, waiting in excitement while the priestess interprets the words of the Oracle.

The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy with the following explanation in the catalogue: 'The Oracle or Teraph was a human head, cured with spices, which was fixed against the wall, and lamps being lit before it and other rites performed, the imagination of diviners was so excited that they supposed that they heard a low voice speaking future events.' The setting is probably imaginary, but has an exotic, middle-eastern flavour, derived from the work of artists such as J.F. Lewis (1805-1876), rather than from personal experience. The atmosphere is heady with incense and the priestess gestures to the women to be silent as she strains to interpret the utterings of the mummified head.

Hobson compares the painting's composition to the shape of a keyhole. As he explains, 'This refers not to some telescopic view of the scene but to the keyhole shape of the figure grouping, in which a ring of spectators concentrate their attention upon another single figure' (quoted in Hobson 1989, pp.31-4). The composition, for all its exoticism, is essentially classical. The series of arched windows, the semi-circular design of the floor and the sweep of the marble step set up a rhythm within the painting. This is counterbalanced by the diagonals of the patterned rugs and the leaning body of the priestess, her hand silhouetted against the daylight, streaming through the open window. The women's varied expressions of apprehension add to the atmosphere of tension as the priestess waits for the oracle to speak.

Contemporary critics remarked on the 'hysteric awe' of the semicircle of women seeking the prophecies of the Teraph and the 'terror' of the priestess as she 'interprets its decrees' (quoted in Hobson 1989, p.34). The Illustrated London News featured the picture as one of the principal works of the year and reproduced it across two pages of an extra supplement. It was bought by Sir Henry Tate, who included it in his founding bequest to the nation in 1894. More on Consulting the Oracle

John William Waterhouse (April 6, 1849 – February 10, 1917) was an English painter known for working in the Pre-Raphaelite style. He worked several decades after the breakup of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which had seen its heyday in the mid-nineteenth century, leading to his sobriquet "the modern Pre-Raphaelite". Borrowing stylistic influences not only from the earlier Pre-Raphaelites but also from his contemporaries, the Impressionists, his artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.

Born in Italy to English parents who were both painters, he later moved to London, where he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Art. He soon began exhibiting at their annual summer exhibitions, focusing on the creation of large canvas works depicting scenes from the daily life and mythology of ancient Greece. Later on in his career he came to embrace the Pre-Raphaelite style of painting despite the fact that it had gone out of fashion in the British art scene several decades before. More on John William Waterhouse

Henri Rousseau, 1875-1933, FRENCH

CAÏD DKHISSI, OF THE TRIFFAS TRIBE

Oil on canvas

55 by 46.5cm., 21.5 by 18¼in.

Private Collection

The plain of the Triffa is located in the Eastern region of Morocco

Henri Rousseau Henry, Emilien Rousseau (Cairo 1875 - Aix-en-Provence in 1933) is an Orientalist painter. A pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Beaux Arts in Paris, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1900 and a travel grant at the Salon of French Artists. He traveled to Belgium, the Netherlands, North Africa, Spain and Italy where he admired the great masters.

After this initiatory journey, he settled in Versailles and set up his studio at the Villa des Arts in Paris. In 1919 he moved to Aix in Provence with his large family (seven children). Knight of the Legion of Honour in arts. His work  is dedicated to Tunisia, Algeria and especially Morocco, Provence and the Camargue remained its anchor points. His success was with a bourgeois and wealthy clientele, where he sold his work at numerous exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Marseilles. More Henri Rousseau

Adam Styka, 1890 - 1959, POLISH

ON THE BANKS OF THE NILE

Oil on board

44.5 by 53cm., 17½ by 21in

Private Collection

Adam Styka, born April 7, 1890 and died September 23, 1959 in Doylestown (Pennsylvania) , was born in Poland in 1890. He completed his formal education at the French Academy of Fine Arts, and painted closely under the tutelage of his father, Jan Styka. Each year Adam exhibited his paintings in the Paris' Salon de Paris, Champs Des Elysses and others in Europe and countries of both Americas.

After graduating from the French Military Academy in Fontainebleau, Adam served in the French artillery during the World War I. He was decorated with a Cross of Merit. Also as a reward, he was granted the French "Nationality Citizenship" and a special assistance from the French Government to visit French colonies in Northern Africa. As the result of these annual journeys, Adam developed an entire genre of Middle-Eastern and Oriental themes. 

Adam Styka passed away on 23rd of September 1959 in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. More Adam Styka

Amadeo Preziosi, 1816 - 1882, MALTESE

THE GRAND BAZAAR, CONSTANTINOPLE, c. 1852

Gouache, watercolour and pencil on paper

36 by 53.5cm., 14 by 21in

Private Collection

The Grand Bazaar  in Istanbul is one of the largest and oldest covered markets in the world, with 61 covered streets and over 4,000 shops which attract between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors daily. More The Grand Bazaar  

Count Amedeo Preziosi (2 December 1816 - 27 September 1882) was a Maltese painter known for his watercolours and prints of the Balkans, Ottoman Empire and Romania. Amedeo was born into a noble family in Malta.

Amedeo was attracted by the arts from early age and was taught by Giuseppe Hyzler. Amedeo continues his painting studies at the École des Beaux-Arts.

After his return home, Amedeo did not find in Malta a suitable environment for an artist, and chose to leave the island and move to Near East. The year when he left Malta for Istanbul is not known.

The earliest drawings of Istanbul are dated November 1842. In 1844. Preziosi was commissioned by the British Ambassador to Istanbul, to create an album called Costumes of Constantinople, which now is located in the collections of the British Museum.

Amadeo Preziosi, (1816 - 1882)

The Silk Bazaar,  Late 19th Century

Watercolor on paper

Height: 410 mm (16.14 in). Width: 300 mm (11.81 in).

Pera Museum,  Istanbul, Turkey

His workshop was routinely visited by tourists wishing to return home with a souvenir of Istanbul, and among his guests was, in April 1869, Edward VII of the United Kingdom, then the Prince of Wales, who bought several watercolours from him. In 1866, as the new Prince of Romania, Carol I visited Istanbul, he met Preziosi and invited him to Romania to make watercolours of the landscapes and people of the country.

Preziosi came to Romania in June 1868 and began drawing scenes from Bucharest as well as several others across the country. The following year Preziosi spent time again in Romania, his drawings, in pencil, ink and watercolours are found in a sketchbook at the Municipal Museum in Bucharest.

Preziosi was killed by an accidental gun discharge while hunting. He was buried in the Catholic cemetery of Yeşilköy, Istanbul. More Count Amedeo Preziosi

GASTON CASIMIR SAINT PIERRE, (1833-1916) 

Oriental dancer 

Oil on panel 

54 x 38 cm

Private Collection

Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre, born on 12 May 1833 In Nimes , and died on 18 December 1916 In Paris, was a French painter, and the pupil of Léon Cogniet and Charles Jalabert in Paris. He made several trips to North Africa and Algiers from where he returned with many sketches and drawings.

In 1900, he painted a canvas representing Marseilles to decorate the large room of the restaurant Le Train bleu at the Gare de Lyon in Paris. He created decorative panels for the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Oran .

Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre was promoted to the rank of officer of the Legion of Honor. More Gaston Casimir Saint-Pierre

CESARE MUSSINI, (BERLIN 1804- FLORENCE 1879)

Malek-Adhel saves Matilda, c. 1830

Oil on canvas

18 7/8 X 15 3/16 IN

Private Collection

Matilda, the young sister of Richard the Lionheart, postpones her commitment to the convent in which she has been raised in order to directly experience the wonders of the Holy Land. She, the Bishop of Tyre, and Bérengère, Richard's consort, are kidnapped by Saladin's brother, Malek Adhel, who instantly succumbs to the conjoined charms of Matilda's beauty and virtue.  Matilda, who has also engineered Bérengère's restoration to Richard, finds her resolve slipping and her virtue imperiled. She flees through a desert to seek the counsel of a hermit. Adhel, fearing for her safety, pursues her and arrives just in time to save her from an attacking band of Bedouins.  On the return journey, Adhel's army mutinies and leaves the lovers stranded in the desert.  Believing themselves dying, both lovers make solemn commitments: Matilda promises to take no husband other than Malek Adhel, and Adhel promises to become a Christian. Miraculously, both are rescued, and shortly thereafter, circumstances compel Adhel to return Matilda to Richard.  Meanwhile, Saladin, believing Adhel to be a traitor to both his faith and his country, raises an army against him.  The Christian armies likewise believe that Adhel may be converted to their cause. Religious leaders, including the Bishop of Tyre, argue that if Adhel can be secured to the Christian cause through Matilda, both religious and military aims would be accomplished. More on Matilda and Malek

Cesare Mussini (Berlin, June 5, 1804 – Florence, May 24, 1879) was a German-Italian painter. He spent many years of his life as a painter in Russia.

He moved to Florence as a young man with his younger brother, and there sought training at the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts. Mussini showed promise as a student. In 1823 he won an award for his watercolor painting. The following year his oil sketch was also awarded by the Academy. He would later become a professor at said Academy. 

Mussini moved to Rome in 1828, where he became friends with French intellectuals and artists such as François-René de Chateaubriand, who was the incumbent ambassador, and Horace Vernet, the director of the French Academy.

Mussini returned to Florence in 1832. He was a sought-after portrait artist, with clients from around the world. From October 1834 he began to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts. That same year he was commissioned by Raphael Finzi Morelli to paint frescoes in his house in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella. More Cesare Mussini

Carl Haag, O.W.S. (German, 1820-1915)

A family of wandering Arabs, c. 1866

Watercolor on paper

sight: 19 1/2 x 13 5/8in (49.5 x 35.8cm)

Private Collection

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 

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10 Orientalist Paintings by Artists from the 19th Century, with footnotes, 12

Victor Huguet, 1835 - 1902

MARKET IN THE DESERT

Oil on canvas

66 by 86.5cm., 26 by 34in.

Private Collection

While Huguet’s desert scenes typically depict riders advancing through the landscape, or pausing briefly for a drink at a wadi, this particularly atmospheric, impressionistic example evokes the bustle of a gathered crowd. Clothed in burnous of varying designs and colours for protection from the harsh environment, in the foreground the figures are surrounded by a range of wares, from horse saddles, rugs and ceramics to livestock such as the trio of goats to the left. 

Victor Pierre Huguet , born Lude the 1 st May 1835 and died in Paris August 16, 1902, was a French, landscape and genre painter.. He was a pupil of Emile Loubon in Marseille and received advice from Fromentin in Paris.

In 1852, aged 17, he traveled to Egypt, then to Crimea where he accompanied Durand-Brager before the siege of Sebastopol. He was profoundly influenced by the landscapes he passes through and that will influence his inspiration to Orientalism, where he soon made a name. Discovering Algeria a few years later, he drew from many sources of inspiration.

He exhibited at the Salons de Marseille and Paris in 1859 and the Salon of French Orientalist Painters at its inception in 1893. He was the leading Orientalist artists of Provence. More Victor Pierre Huguet

Alberto Pasini, 1826 - 1899, ITALIAN

THE ROUT, c. 1884 lower right

Oil on canvas

82 by 121cm., 32¼ by 47¾in

Private Collection

Alberto Pasini (Busseto, 3 September 1826 – Cavoretto, 15 December 1899) was an Italian painter. He was enrolled at the age of 17 years, in the Academy of Fine Art of Parma, studying landscape painting and drawing. In Parma, he was helped early on by Antonio Pasini, who painted for the local nobility and collaborated with the publishing house established by Giovanni Battista Bodoni. By 1852, he exhibited a series of thirty designs, made into lithographs, depicting various castles around Piacenza, Lunigiana and Parma. He was noticed by the artist Paolo Toschi, who encouraged Pasini to travel to Paris, where Pasini first joined the workshop of Charles and Eugène Ciceri, of the so-called School of Barbizon.

Alberto Pasini, 1826 - 1899, ITALIAN

THE ROUT, c. 1884 lower right

Detail

In 1853 his lithograph of The Evening gained him admittance to the Paris Salon, and to the workshop of the famous Théodore Chassériau. The eruption of the Crimean War offered a new opportunity, when in February 1855, this latter painter recommended Pasini to replace him on the entourage of the French plenipotentiary minister Nicolas Prosper Bourée to Persia. Pasini accompanied him, returning through the north of Persia and Armenia before reaching the port of Trebizond. In subsequent trips, he visited Egypt, the Red Sea, Arabia, Istanbul, and Persia. Pasini parlayed his exposures during this trip into numerous highly detailed paintings of orientalist subjects. He left again for Istanbul in October 1867, summoned by the French Ambassador Bourée. He returned to Turkey in 1876 to execute the four paintings commissioned by Sultan Abdul Aziz. He was about to return to Istanbul the next year, when his patron, the Sultan, died.

In 1865, he spent some time in Cannes, painted landscapes of the Riviera. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he returned to Italy, settling in Cavoretto, on the hills around Turin. He continued to travel, closer to his home, with trips to Venice and two sojourns in Spain in 1879 and 1883. More Alberto Pasini 

Eugen Bracht, 1842-1921, SWISS

REST IN THE SYRIAN DESERT, c. 1883

Oil on canvas

65 by 125cm., 25½ by 49¼in.

Private Collection

In this atmospheric work, a group of journeying men make a halt in the desert against the backdrop of a range of barren hills. The figure standing by his camel holds a spear, while his companions lie or sit in a circle talking. With great mastery, Bracht evokes the utter stillness and loneliness of the desert air. The broad viewpoint and photographic illusionism in the painting no doubt owe something to Bracht's work as a panorama painter in the early 1880s, notably on the landscape sections for the Sedan Panorama, commissioned to commemorate the Prussian victory in the Battle of Sedan in the Franco-Prussian War. More REST IN THE SYRIAN DESERT

Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht, (1842–1921)

"Memory of Gizeh", c. 1883 

Oil on wood

15.5 x 21.5 cm 

Private Collection

Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht (3 June 1842 – 5 November 1921) was a German landscape painter. Bracht was born in Morges, Waadt (near Lake Geneva in Switzerland) of German parents. They then moved to Darmstadt, Germany where he was a pupil of Karl Ludwig Seeger at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. Later he studied under Hans Gude in Düsseldorf. Dissatisfied with his work, in 1864 he moved to Berlin and became a merchant. In 1876 he decided to become a painter after all and he joined his former teacher in Karlsruhe. He mostly painted landscapes and was one of the famous painters of the late Romanticism in Germany.

He was known for landscapes and coastal scenes in North Germany, and in 1880 and 1881, he made a sketching trip through Syria, Palestine and Egypt. In 1882 he became a Professor of Landscape Painting at the Prussian Academy of Arts. In 1885 he painted the Battle of Chattanooga for the "Philadelphia Panorama Company", a cyclorama which was installed in Philadelphia and Kansas City.

Bracht was supported by Anton von Werner, the conservative director of the Berlin Academy, but broke off with him during the affair of the closure of Edvard Munch's Berlin exhibition in 1892.

When von Werner died, Bracht finished a panorama of the Battle of Sedan which Werner had begun. Later he became a representative of German Impressionism.

In 1901 he obtained a teaching position at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts that he held until 1919. After his retirement he lived in Darmstadt, where he died in 1921. More Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht 

Giulio Rosati, 1858 - 1917, ITALIAN

THE DANCE

Oil on canvas

52.5 by 82cm., 20¾ by 32¼in.

Private Collection

The wealth of intricate details, luxurious fabrics and the lyrical composition of The Dance showcase Rosati's exceptional skill at combining ethnographic accuracy with spontaneous brushstrokes. The artist's profound passion for the Orient is evident as much through the fascinating array of objects, materials and architecture as the varied characters and personalities he has chosen as his cast. Despite the conviction with which Rosati rendered his scene, the artist's journeys to the Middle East were purely metaphorical - he never visited the region instead relying on photographic evidence and souvenirs for his inspiration.

Giulio Rosati, 1858 - Rome - 1917,  specialised in eighteenth century costume pieces, comical scenes of from the life of the clergy and Orientalist subjects. His preferred medium was watercolour, though he also worked in oils.

Rosati studied at the Academy of Rome. He was the pupil of several eminent artists, in particular the poet and architect Francesco Podesti (1800-1895) and Dario Querci (born 1831), a portrait and history painter from Messina. He also studied with Luis Alvarez y Catala (1836-1901), director of the Prado Museum, Madrid.

Giulio Rosati, (Italian, 1858-1917) 

Bedouins preparing a raiding party, c. 1895

Watercolour on paper 

29¾ x 21 in. (75.5 x 54 cm.) 

Private Collection

Rosati was one of a large group of Italian Orientalist painters working in Rome at the end of the nineteenth century. These artists emulated Mariano Fortuny y Marsal in his skilful rendering of detail and bright colouring. This manner was particularly popular with American and British collectors, many of whom purchased these images as a memento of their travels in the Near East, a voyage very much in vogue at the end of the last century.

Guilio Rosati had a son Alberto who also became an artist. His manner is very much indebted to his father, but he was not so prolific. More Giulio Rosati

Adolf Schreyer, 1828 - 1899, GERMAN

HORSEMEN AT A WATERING HOLE

Oil on canvas

67 by 87.5cm., 26¼ by 34½in.

Private Collection

Adolf Schreyer (July 9, 1828 Frankfurt-am-Main – July 29, 1899 Kronberg im Taunus) was a German painter, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting. He studied art, first at the Städel Institute in his native town, and then at Stuttgart and Munich. He painted many of his favourite subjects in his travels in the East. He first accompanied Maximilian Karl, 6th Prince of Thurn and Taxis through Hungary, Wallachia, Russia and Turkey; then, in 1854, he followed the Austrian army across the Wallachian frontier. In 1856 he went to Egypt and Syria, and in 1861 to Algiers. In 1862 he settled in Paris, but returned to Germany in 1870; and settled at Cronberg near Frankfurt, where he died.

Schreyer was, and is still, especially esteemed as a painter of horses, of peasant life in Wallachia and Moldavia, and of battle incidents. His work is remarkable for its excellent equine draughtsmanship, and for the artist's power of observation and forceful statement; and has found particular favour among French and American collectors. Of his battle-pictures there are two at the Schwerin Gallery, and others in the collection of Count Mensdorff-Pouilly and in the Raven Gallery, Berlin.  More

Rudolf Ernst, 1854-1932, AUSTRIAN

THE PERFUME MAKERS

Oil on panel

55.5 by 45cm., 22 by 17¾in

Private Collection

The Perfume Makers is an evocation of perfect feminine conviviality and complicity. Two young women are seen working in harmony together; as one girl enters the room carrying a basket of roses, her companion plucks the petals and places them in the urn by her side, ready for crushing to extract their aromatic essence. While the scene is one of tranquility and modesty, the luxuriant and plentiful petals whose scent is almost palpable, the azur blue sky and distant sun-drenched seashore glimpsed through the doorway, the colourful tiles, and the eastern copper and earthenware lend the painting an unspoken sensuality and exotic atmosphere.

Despite their ethnographic detail, depictions of middle-eastern women like this are ultimately constructs of the artist's imagination, since Westerners would have been prohibited by local custom from observing many of the places and customs they painted. More The Perfume Makers

Rudolf Ernst (14 February 1854, Vienna - 1932, Fontenay-aux-Roses) was an Austro-French painter, printmaker and ceramics painter who is best known for his orientalist motifs. He exhibited in Paris under the name "Rodolphe Ernst".

He was the son of an architect and, encouraged by his father, began studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna at the age of fifteen. He spent some time in Rome, copying the old masters, and continued his lessons in Vienna with August Eisenmenger and Anselm Feuerbach.

In 1876, he settled in Paris. The following year, he participated in his first artists' salon. He later made trips to Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Constantinople to study and document what he saw there.

In 1905, he moved to Fontenay-aux-Roses where he set up a shop to produce faience tiles with orientalist themes. He decorated his home in Ottoman style and lived a reclusive life. His exact date of death was apparently not recorded. More Rudolf Ernst 

Alphonse Etienne Dinet (français, 1861 - 1929)

(UNKNOWN) THE PERFUME MAKER

Oil on canvas

65 x 81 cm. (25.6 x 31.9 in.)

Private Collection

Nasreddine Dinet (born as Alphonse-Étienne Dinet on 28 March 1861 – 24 December 1929, Paris) was a French orientalist painter. From 1871, he studied at the Lycée Henry IV, where the future president Alexandre Millerand was also among the students. Upon graduation in 1881 he enrolled in the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and entered the studio of Victor Galland. The following year he studied under William Bouguereau and Tony Robert-Fleury at the Académie Julian. He also exhibited for the first time at the Salon des artistes français.

Dinet made his first trip to Bou Saâda by the Ouled Naïl Range in southern Algeria in 1884, with a team of entomologists. The following year he made a second trip on a government scholarship, this time to Laghouat.[1] At that time he painted his first two Algerian pictures: les Terrasses de Laghouat and l’Oued M’Sila après l’orage.

He won the silver medal for painting at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, and in the same year founded the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts along with Meissonier, Puvis de Chavannes, Rodin, Carolus-Duran and Charles Cottet. In 1887 he further founded with Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg, the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français.

In 1903 he bought a house in Bou Saâda and spent three quarters of each year there. He announced his conversion to Islam in a private letter of 1908, and completed his formal conversion in 1913, upon which he changed his name to Nasr’Eddine Dinet. In 1929 he and his wife undertook the Hajj to Mecca. The respect he earned from the natives of Algeria was reflected by the 5,000 who attended his funeral on 12 January 1930 in Bou Saâda. There he was eulogized by the former Governor General of Algeria Maurice Viollette. More Nasreddine Dinet 

Georges Washington, 1827 - 1910, FRENCH

CAVALIERS ARABES

oil on canvas

66 by 92.5cm., 26 by 36½in

Private Collection

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.

Georges Washington, 1827 - 1910, FRENCH

CAVALIERS ARABES

dETAIL

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

Acknowledgement: Sotheby's, 

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11 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings from Cornwall & Scotland - With Footnotes, #24

William Edward Webb, (1862–1903)

Douglas Harbour, c. 1896

Oil on canvas

59 x 90 cm

Manx Museum

Douglas Harbour is located near Douglas Head on the southern end of Douglas, the capital town of the Isle of Man. It is the island's main commercial shipping port. The earliest recorded history indicates the presence of infrastructure facilitating the use of Douglas Harbour dates back to 1660. From the beginning of the 19th Century many things happened to open up the Island to an increasing amount of traffic. More Douglas Harbour

William Edward Webb (1862–1903), see below

Hendrik Barend Koekkoek, (Dutch, 1849-circa 1885)

Canal scene with boats

Oil on canvas

40 x 60.5cm (15 3/4 x 23 13/16in).

Private collection

Hendrik Barend (also Barend Hendrik) Koekkoek, (Dutch, 1849-circa 1885), was the son of H. Koekkoek. Hendrik was born in Amsterdam and was a student of MA Koekkoek. Many of his family were also artists.

He had a romantic view of landscapes as poetic representation of nature . Often, his paintings were of a forest with a castle or other building in the background. Noteworthy in his paintings is the role of light which was an intrinsic element in his art.

HB Koekkoek lived and worked in Amsterdam, Hilversum, Brussels and London.  He painted landscapes and woodland scenes.  He died in London in 1909.  More Koekkoek, Barend Cornelis 

Henri Carnier

Flemish Port 

Oil on panel

25 x 20 cm. (9 13/16 x 7 7/8in.)

Private collection

Karl Kaufmann (born 1843 in Neuplachowitz, Austrian Silesia; † 27. April 1905 in Vienna) was an Austrian landscape and architectural painter. Kaufmann was a student at the Vienna Academy. His studies in the European North (Norway), to Holland, Germany (Franconia, Danzig, Königsberg) and often to Italy (Naples, Rome, Venice) gave him the motives for his numerous landscapes, including a remarkable number of views of Venice.

From 1900 Karl Kaufmann constantly lived in Vienna. He often signed his works using pseudonyms. Among various other names, Byon, H. Carnier, W. Carnier, F. Gilbert, O. Halm, C.Charpentier, J. Holmstedt, Charles Marchand, R. Merkner, B. Lambert, E. Leutner, M. Heger, Hobart, L. van Howe / van Hove, R. Jäger, Laarsen, Lundberg, F. Marchant, J. Marchant, C. Poul, F. Rodek, J. Rollin, Taupiac, L. Voigt or R. Benda, have often been used. More Karl Kaufmann

Henri Carnier

Flemish Port 

Oil on panel

25 x 20 cm. (9 13/16 x 7 7/8in.)

Private collection

Karl Kaufmann (born 1843 in Neuplachowitz, Austrian Silesia; † 27. April 1905 in Vienna), see above

Dorothea Sharp, RBA, ROI (British, 1874-1955)

Children playing by the shore

Oil on canvas

82.5 x 84.5cm (32 1/2 x 33 1/4in).

Private collection

Dorothea Sharp (British 1873—1955) was born in Dartford, Kent. Despite her family's disapproval, she trained at Regent Street Polytechnic, and in Paris where she discovered the work of Monet.. The latter greatly influenced her handling of subjects and colour in impressionist fashion. The Artist (journal) made much of her work, considering her to be one of the greatest women painters of her time. 

During WWII she moved to St Ives and she and became a prominent members of STISA. More Dorothea Sharp

Michael Brown, (British, 1854-1957)

Boys on a sea shore

Oil on canvas

15 x 20cm (5 7/8 x 7 7/8in).

Private collection

Michael Brown was a British visual artist who was born in 1854. Michael Brown has had numerous gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Corbett vs. Dempsey and at the ADA Gallery. Several works by the artist have been sold at auction, including 'PLAYING THE FIRST HOLE AT POINT GARRY, NORTH BERWICK' sold at Sotheby's Edinburgh 'Gleneagles Paintings' in 2005 for $129,672. There have been numerous articles about Michael Brown, including 'Baltimore riots: Artist hangs 'lynched' black dolls from tree in protest at deaths of Walter Scott, Eric Garner and Michael Brown' written by Neela Debnath for The Independent in 2015. The artist died in 1957. More Michael Brown

William McTaggart, RSA RSW (British, 1835-1910)

Tarbert, Loch Fyne

Watercolour

38 x 30.5cm (14 15/16 x 12in).

Private collection

Tarbert, or Tairbeart Loch Fìne, is a village in the West of Scotland in the Argyll and Bute council area. It is built around East Loch Tarbert, an inlet of Loch Fyne, and extends over the isthmus which links the peninsula of Kintyre to Knapdale and West Loch Tarbert. 

The name Tarbert is the anglicised form of the Gaelic word tairbeart. This refers to the narrowest strip of land between two bodies of water over which goods or entire boats can be carried (portage). In past times cargoes were discharged from vessels berthed in one loch, hauled over the isthmus to the other loch, loaded onto vessels berthed there and shipped onward, allowing seafarers to avoid the sail around the Mull of Kintyre.

Tarbert was anciently part of the Gaelic overkingdom of Dál Riata and protected by three castles. The ruin of the last of these castles—Tarbert Castle—still exists, and dominates Tarbert's skyline. Around the year 1098 Magnus Barefoot, King of Norway, had his longship carried across the isthmus at Tarbert to signify his possession of the Western Isles.

Despite its distinction as a strategic stronghold during the Middle Ages, Tarbert's socioeconomic prosperity came during the Early Modern period, as the port developed into a fishing town. At its height, the Loch Fyne herring fishery attracted hundreds of vessels to Tarbert. More Tarbert

William McTaggart (25 October 1835 – 2 April 1910) was a Scottish landscape and marine painter born in the small village in Scotland. He moved to Edinburgh at the age of 16 and studied at the Trustees' Academy. He won several prizes as a student and exhibited his work in the Royal Scottish Academy, becoming a full member of the Academy in 1870. His early works were mainly figure paintings, often of children, but he later turned to land and Marine art specifically seascape painting.

McTaggart was fascinated with nature and man’s relationship with it, and he strove to capture aspects such as the transient effects of light on water. He adopted the Impressionist practice of painting out of doors, and his use of colour and bold brushwork. McTaggart was skilled in the use of both oil and watercolour. He is regarded as one of the great interpreters of the Scottish landscape and is often labelled the "Scottish Impressionist".

He married Marjorie Henderson, the daughter of another painter, Joseph Henderson (artist) RSW (1832-1908), Joseph's sons John Henderson (1860-1924) and Joseph Morris Henderson (1863-1936) also being painters. McTaggart painted a striking portrait of his father in law, Joseph Henderson, which hangs in the Glasgow Museum. More William McTaggart

Sir James Lawton Wingate, RSA (British, 1846-1924)

Firth of Clyde 

Oil on canvas 

26 x 37 cm. (10 1/4 x 14 9/16 in.)

Private collection

The Firth of Clyde encloses the largest and deepest coastal waters in the British Isles, sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by the Kintyre peninsula (above) which encloses the outer firth in Argyll and Ayrshire, Scotland. The Kilbrannan Sound is a large arm of the Firth of Clyde, separating the Kintyre Peninsula from the Isle of Arran (below). Within the Firth of Clyde is another major island - the Isle of Bute. Given its strategic location, at the entrance to the middle/upper Clyde, Bute played a vitally important military (naval) role during World War II. More Firth of Clyde 

Sir James Lawton Wingate (9 October 1846 – 22 April 1924) was a Scottish painter of the late nineteenth century. He was born in Glasgow, and initially worked as a commercial clerk, taking drawing lessons in the early morning. He was influenced by Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites, and first exhibited in 1864 at the Glasgow Fine Art Institute. The appreciation he received led him to abandon his job and tour Italy in 1867-68 where he created 150 watercolour drawings.

Returning to Scotland, he lived at Hamilton, and developed a keen skill in painting landscapes and woodland scenes while studying at the Royal Scottish Academy (RSA).

In 1874 he moved to Crieff and later to Muthill, painting rustic genre scenes and later increasingly impressionistic landscapes which made his reputation. After 1880 he exhibited regularly at the RSA, becoming its President in 1919, also the year in which he was knighted. He resigned as President of the RSA shortly before his death in Edinburgh, aged 77. More James Lawton Wingate

Patrick Downie RSW (British, 1854-1945)

A Grey Morning off Arran , c. 1918

Watercolour 

36 x 53 cm. (14 3/16 x 20 7/8 in.)

Private collection

Arran or the Isle of Arran, is the seventh largest Scottish island. It is in the unitary council area of North Ayrshire. Arran has been continuously inhabited since the early Neolithic period, and numerous prehistoric remains have been found. From the 6th century onwards, Goidelic-speaking peoples from Ireland colonised it and it became a centre of religious activity. During the troubled Viking Age, Arran became the property of the Norwegian crown, until formally absorbed by the kingdom of Scotland in the 13th century.  It is divided into highland and lowland areas by the Highland Boundary Fault and has been described as a "geologist's paradise". More Isle of Arran

Patrick Downie was born in Greenock in 1854. He showed great artistic ability from an early age. His father died when he was still very young, and Downie was forced to seek employment as a van man, and then as a postman. 

He decided to devote his life to art and began a period of intense study first in his country and then in Paris. He failed however to find this to be a lucrative prospect and in 1887 went to Paisley

Downie was an early contributor to the principal art exhibitions, including those of the Royal Scottish Academy, the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Royal Scottish Watercolour Society, as well as to exhibitions in Paris, Venice and elsewhere on the continent. In 1905 he was elected a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Water Colour.

When George V and Queen Mary visited the Institute of the Fine Arts in Glasgow, the Queen, whose attention had been drawn to a picture by E. A. Hornell, said “I do not care for that style but there is a picture I like”, pointing to one signed by Patrick Downie. More Patrick Downie

Patrick Downie, (1854–1945)

Back to the Clyde

Oil on canvas

101.6 x 127 cm

Dundee Art Galleries and Museums Collection (Dundee City Council)

The River Clyde is a river, that flows into the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second-longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire. In the early medieval Cumbric language it was known as Clud or Clut, and was central to the Kingdom of Strathclyde. More The River Clyde 

Patrick Downie, (1854–1945), see above

William Edward Webb, (British, 1862-1903)

Seascape with Figures

Oil on Canvas

19” by 29 1/2”.

Private collection

William Edward Webb, (British, 1862-1903). A permanent resident of Manchester, he widely frequented the coasts and ports of Great Britain, producing an impressive output of active scenes celebrating the challenges faced by those who plied their trades on the open ocean.

Webb exhibited more than 60 paintings from 1890 to 1904, mostly in his hometown, but also with the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and three times with the Royal Academy in London. Greater commercial recognition came to Webb posthumously partially through the efforts of author Denys Brook-Hart, who saw what he identified as the extreme first-hand excellence of the artist.

Webb’s art is celebratory in spirit while it offers no false glamour of the hard lives faced by working sailors and fishermen in the 19th century. His seas are vibrant and active, his atmospheric light exceedingly realistic of the heavy skies of the British Isles, and his portrayals of the local people artistically insightful. More William Edward Webb

David Curtis, 1948 Born, Doncaster

Tall ships moored, Charleston-Bay

Watercolor

13 x23"

Private collection

Located about a mile outside the town of St Austell is Charlestown. It was constructed between 1791 and 1801 by Charles Rashleigh, entrepreneur and member of the local landowning family, in response to the growth of the local mining industry. Originally built to export copper and import coal, it was soon being used for the export of China Clay. It is from its creator that the the port gets its name. More Charleston-Bay

David Curtis is a member of the Royal Society of Marine Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. He is one of the UK's most successful and best known artists. David won first prize in the Singer and Friedlander/Sunday Times Watercolour Competition in 1992, and has won many other awards for his spectacular art.

Essentially a "plein air" and figurative painter, working in both oil and watercolours, he is the author of numerous books and has work in collections all over the world. More David Curtis

George Sherwood Hunter, RBA (British, 1850-1919)

Fisherfolk Returning, Aberdeen, c. 1886

Oil on canvas

37 x 75 cm. (14 9/16 x 29 1/2 in.)

Private collection

Hunter was an Aberdeen artist. This is a view looking south, towards Girdle Ness lighthouse. The wrecking of the whaling ship Oscar here in 1813 with the loss of all but two of her crew of 45 led to the building of the lighthouse in 1833. 

George Sherwood Hunter, RBA (British, 1850-1919) was born on 30 May 1846 in Aberdeen, Scotland, and moved to London, where he exhibited both at Smith Street and the RA.  1897 found him in Cornwall, where he lived at Belle Vue, Newlyn, and from 1902 moved to The Malt House where he stayed until his death. Hunter assisted in teaching at the FORBES School of painting in the early days of the School.

At the 1895 Opening of NAG, Hunter exhibited three paintings - two from the 'memorable East' (Cornishman review cutting): A Jericho Patriarch and A Modern Canaanite Jerusalem (which both sold), and the third being a Spanish subject. In 1901 at NAG he showed West Coast of Scotland and in 1907 he sold Spanish Girl. The artist died on 18 June, 1919, age 73, in Newlyn. More George Sherwood Hunter

George Sherwood Hunter (1846–1919)

Fishermen, Newlyn, Cornwall

Oil on canvas

12 x 21 cm

University of Hull Art Collection

Newlyn is a seaside town and fishing port in south-west Cornwall, UK. Newlyn lies on the shore of Mount's Bay and forms a small conurbation with the neighbouring town of Penzance. It is part of the Penzance civil parish, and is the southern-most town on the British mainland. The principal industry is fishing, although there are also a wide variety of yachts and pleasure boats, in the harbour, as Newlyn is becoming an increasingly popular holiday destination. More Newlyn

George Sherwood Hunter (1846–1919), see above

Acknowledgement: Bonhams, 

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others