10 Orientalist Paintings by Artists from the 19th Century, with footnotes, 16

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

Léon François Comerre (10 October 1850 – 20 February 1916)

An Eastern Beauty

oil on canvas

44 x 28 ¾ in. (111.8 x 73 cm.)

Private Collection

Léon François Comerre (10 October 1850 – 20 February 1916) was a French academic painter, famous for his portraits of beautiful women. Comerre was born in Trélon, in the Département du Nord, the son of a schoolteacher. He moved to Lille with his family in 1853. From an early age he showed an interest in art and became a student of Alphonse Colas at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lille, winning a gold medal in 1867. From 1868 a grant from the Département du Nord allowed him to continue his studies in Paris at the famous École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in the studio of Alexandre Cabanel. There he came under the influence of orientalism.

Comerre first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1871 and went on to win prizes in 1875 and 1881. In 1875 he won the Grand Prix de Rome. This led to a scholarship at the French Academy in Rome from January 1876 to December 1879. In 1885 he won a prize at the "Exposition Universelle" in Antwerp. He also won prestigious art prizes in the USA (1876) and Australia (1881 and 1897). He became a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1903.

 More Léon Comerre

Francisco de Goya,  (1746–1828)

The Second of May 1808 or The Charge of the Mamelukes, c. 1814

Oil on canvas

266 × 345 cm (104.7 × 135.8 in)

Prado Museum

May 02, 1808. Francisco de Goya witnessed first hand the French occupation of Spain in 1808, when Napoleon used the pretext of reinforcing his army in Portugal to seize the Spanish throne, leaving his brother Joseph in power. Attempts to remove members of the Spanish royal family from Madrid provoked a widespread rebellion. This popular uprising occurred between the second and third of May 1808, when suppressed by forces under Maréchal Joachim Murat. In this image: The Second of May 1808, also known as The Charge of the Mamelukes, a painting by the Spanish master Francisco de Goya. More The Second of May 1808

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes[A] (30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish romantic painter and printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of late 18th and early 19th centuries and throughout his long career was a commentator and chronicler of his era. Immensely successful in his lifetime, Goya is often referred to as both the last of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. He was also one of the great portraitists of modern times. More on Francisco José de Goya

John Reinhard Weguelin,  (1849–1927)

The Obsequies of an Egyptian Cat, c. 1886

Oil on canvas

994 x 1425 x 85 mm

AUCKLAND ART GALLERY

A priestess offers gifts of food and milk to the spirit of a cat. On an altar stands the mummy of the deceased, and the tomb is decorated with frescoes, urns of fresh flowers, lotus blossoms, and statuettes. The priestess kneels as she wafts incense smoke toward the altar. In the background, a statue of Sekhmet or Bastet guards the entrance to the tomb. More this painting

In 1889 eight illustrations by J R Weguelin, although not this image, were published in The Cat of Bubastes: A Tale of Ancient Egypt, by the popular and prolific historical novelist G A Henty. The plot turns on the accidental killing of a sacred cat:

So esteemed were even the most common animals of the cat tribe that, if a cat happened to die in a house, the inhabitants went into mourning and shaved their eyebrows in token of their grief; the embalmers were sent for, the dead cat made into a mummy, and conveyed with much solemnity to the great catacombs set aside for the burial of the sacred animals. More Egyptian Cat

John Reinhard Weguelin,  (1849–1927)

The Bath, c. 1890

Oil on canvas

20 × 10 in (50.8 × 25.4 cm)

Private Collection

John Reinhard Weguelin RWS (June 23, 1849 – April 28, 1927) was an English painter and illustrator, active from 1877 to after 1910. He specialized in figurative paintings with lush backgrounds, typically landscapes or garden scenes. Weguelin emulated the neo-classical style of Edward Poynter and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, painting subjects inspired by classical antiquity and mythology. He depicted scenes of everyday life in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as mythological subjects, with an emphasis on pastoral scenes. Weguelin also drew on folklore for inspiration, and painted numerous images of nymphs and mermaids. 

Although his earliest work was in watercolour, all of Weguelin's important works from 1878 to 1892 were oil paintings. 

Weguelin's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and a number of other important London galleries, and was highly regarded during his career. However, he was forgotten following the first World War, as his style of painting fell out of fashion. More John Reinhard Weguelin

Rudolf Ernst, VIENNE 1854 - 1932 PARIS, ÉCOLE AUTRICHIENNE

LANGUOROUS ORIENTAL LADY WITH A ROSE

Oil on panel

61 x 49 cm ; 24 by 19 1/4 in.

Private Collection

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 

Rudolf Ernst, VIENNE 1854 - 1932 PARIS, ÉCOLE AUTRICHIENNE

LANGUOROUS ORIENTAL LADY 

Detail

Stephan Sedlacek, 1868 - 1936, AUSTRIAN

IN THE HAREM

Oil on canvas

82 by 129cm., 32 by 50½in.

Private Collection

Stephan Sedlacek : Czech, b. 1868 – d. 1936, a Victorian artist. Full detailed biography have been difficult to collect.

Sedlacek appears to have had quite a close understanding of the upper classes, with a few images of lower classes visiting fortune tellers, and a series on visiting an oriental harem, but for the most part Sedlacek seems to focus on capturing the opulence of the social activities of the elite. The people are small, wrapped in the finery of their fashion and surroundings, basking in the fortune that has smiled upon them. The scenes are calm, peaceful and very refined. An embodiment of the ideals of the era. More Stephan Sedlacek

Gustav Bauernfeind, 1848 - 1904, GERMAN

A WELL IN JAFFA, c. 1880 

Watercolour and pencil on paper

35.5 by 48cm., 14 by 19in.

Private Collection

The present work dates from Bauernfeind's first visit to Palestine in 1880. Although Jaffa was the main port of entry for travelers to Jerusalem, Bauernfeind was one of the few Orientalist artists to depict the city. More Jaffa

Jaffa is an ancient port city in Palistine. Jaffa is famous for its association with the biblical stories of Jonah, Solomon and Saint Peter as well as the mythological story of Andromeda and Perseus.

The town was mentioned in Egyptian sources and the Amarna letters as Yapu. Mythology says that it is named for Japheth, one of the sons of Noah, the one who built it after the Flood. The Hellenist tradition links the name to Iopeia, or Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda. An outcropping of rocks near the harbor is reputed to have been the place where Andromeda was rescued by Perseus. Pliny the Elder associated the name with Iopa, daughter of Aeolus, god of the wind. The Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi referred to it as Yaffa. More Yaffa

Gustav Bauernfeind, 1848 - 1904, GERMAN

Market at Jaffa, 1877

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

Gustav Bauernfeind (4 September 1848, Sulz am Neckar - 24 December 1904, Jerusalem) was a German painter, illustrator and architect. He is considered to be one of the most notable Orientalist painters of Germany.

After completing his architectural studies in Stuttgart, he worked in the architectural firm of Professor Wilhelm Bäumer and later in that of Adolph Gnauth, where he also learned painting. In his earlier paintings, Bauernfeind focused on local views of Germany, as well as motifs from Italy. During his journey to the Levant from 1880 to 1882, he became interested in the Orient and repeated his travels again and again. In 1896 he moved with his wife and son all the way to Palestine and subsequently settled in Jerusalem in 1898. He also lived and worked in Lebanon and Syria.

Gustav Bauernfeind, 1848 - 1904, GERMAN

SENTINEL AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE MOUNT, JERUSALEM, c. 1883

Oil on panel

24 by 32cm., 9½ by 12½in.

Private Collection

His work is characterized primarily by architectural views of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. The paintings of Bauernfeind are mostly meticulously crafted, intricately composed and almost photographically accurate cityscapes and images of known sanctuaries in oil. In addition, he produced landscape scenes and watercolours. During his lifetime he was the most popular Orientalist painter of Germany, but soon fell into oblivion after his death. However, since the early 1980s, Bauernfeind was gradually rediscovered. At his birthplace in Sulz am Neckar, the life and work of the painter is commemorated by the Gustav Bauernfeind Museum with a large permanent exhibition. More Gustav Bauernfeind 

The Temple Mount, "Mount of the House [of God, known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif,  "the Noble Sanctuary", is a hill located in the Old City of Jerusalem, is one of the most important religious sites in the world. It has been venerated as a holy site for thousands of years by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The present site is dominated by three monumental structures from the early Umayyad period: the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the Rock and the Dome of the Chain, as well as four minarets. Herodian walls and gates with additions dating back to the late Byzantine and early Islamic periods cut through the flanks of the Mount. Currently it can be reached through eleven gates, ten reserved for Muslims and one for non-Muslims, with guard posts in the vicinity of each. More on The Temple Mount

The view is through the Bab as-Silsileh (Chain Gate) in the Temple Mount's western wall, with the Dome of the Rock beyond.

Jacques-Joseph Eeckhout, ANVERS 1793 - 1861 PARIS, ÉCOLE BELGE

THE SLAVE MERCHANT IN TURKEY, c. 1853

Oil on canvas

57,5 x 48 cm ; 22 5/8 by 18 7/8 in.

Private Collection

Jacobus Josephus Eeckhout (2 June 1793 – 25 December 1861) was a Flemish painter. He was born at Antwerp, and studied first at the Academy of that city. He painted historical and genre subjects, and portraits, and in 1829 he was elected a member of the Academies of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, and Rotterdam. He settled at the Hague in 1831, and in 1839 became director of the Academy in that city, and after staying at Mechlin and Brussels he went to live in Paris in 1859. He imitated Rembrandt with some skill, and may be considered one of the most distinguished painters of the modern Dutch school. His compositions are expressive and lively, and the colouring vigorous. More on Jacobus Josephus Eeckhout 

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

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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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