01 Orientalist Painting, Gustave Boulanger's Tribute, with footnotes #114

Gustave Boulanger, French, 1824 - 1888

The Tribute, c. 1871

Oil on canvas

67 by 47cm., 26¼ by 18½in.

Private collection

Sold for 107,100 GBP in March 2022

A young emir and his entourage, resting in the shade of the forest - perhaps resting on a journey - receive a passing traveller. The latter, in a crimson outer robe, his horse left untethered behind the great baobab tree, appears to offer the young nobleman a talisman of some kind, as a gesture of kindness or respect. This the young man accepts, and a friendship is struck. The emir’s escort, a robed Nubian and a bashi bazouk, recognizable by his distinctive white kilt, look on amenably. More on this painting

Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger (25 April 1824 – October 1888) was a French figure painter known for his classical and Orientalist subjects. He was born at Paris in 1824, and orphaned at age 14 His uncle and guardian subsequently sent him to the studio of Pierre-Jules Jollivet and then to Delaroche in 1840. In 1849 took the Prix de Rome with his painting, Ulysses, a work which combined a classical approach with Orientalist overtones.


In 1845, he first visited Algeria and this gave him an interest in Orientalist themes. Boulanger's knowledge of Pompeii, which he visited while studying at the École de Rome, also gave him ideas for many future works. His paintings are prime examples of academic art of the time, particularly history painting. Boulanger had visited Italy, Greece, and North Africa, and his paintings reflect his attention to culturally correct details and skill in rendering the female form.

He began teaching at the Institut de France in 1882 and was an influential teacher, noted for his dislike of the Impressionism. More on Gustave Clarence Rodolphe Boulanger

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01 Orientalist Painting, Nils Forsberg's Dance of the Almeh, with footnotes #113

Nils Forsberg, Swedish, 1842 - 1934

The Dance of the Almeh

Ooil on canvas

208.3 by 122cm., 82½ by 48¾in.

Private collection

Estimated for 30,000 - 50,000 GBP in October 2022

Almah (Egyptian dancer), was the name of a class of courtesans or female entertainers in Egypt, women educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse wittily. They were educated girls of good social standing, trained in dancing, singing and poetry, present at festivals and entertainments, and hired as mourners at funerals.

The Awalim were first introduced as singers, not dancers-cum-prostitutes, according to Edward William Lane's book, Manner and Costumes of modern Egyptians. Lane additionally wrote that the Almah didn't display herself at all, but sang from behind a screen or from another room at weddings and other respectable festivities. Consequently, the Awalem were not subject to exile in Upper Egypt.  More on Almeh

Nils Forsberg (17 December 1842 – 8 November 1934) was a Swedish painter who lived and worked in Paris for much of his career.

Forsberg was born in a small village called Riseberga, in the province of Scania. The son of a peasant, he spent his early years in farming, then was apprenticed to a house-painter at Göteborg. He made a statue of Minerva which procured for him a government stipend which enabled him to go to Paris in 1867. In Paris he was a student in the atelier of Léon Bonnat. Art historian Richard Muther would later write that Forsberg "became the Swedish Bonnat". 

The siege of Paris, during which he enlisted in the Ambulance Department, afforded him opportunities for studying and sketching the scenes that he observed. In 1877 he exhibited Family of Acrobats before the Circus Director, now in the Gothenburg Museum of Art. This work, which typifies Forsberg's commitment to social reform, shows the influence of the French Realists in its depiction of child labor

In 1888 he received the gold medal at the Salon for his painting The Death of a Hero, now in the Nationalmuseum of Stockholm. The culmination of his ambition to renew traditional history painting with a vigorous contemporary realism, it took him several years to complete, and was inspired by his experiences during the Franco-Prussian War. Afterwards he devoted himself more especially to historical subjects. In 1904 he returned to Sweden. He died in Helsingborg on 8 November 1934. More on Nils Forsberg

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01 Orientalist Painting, Alberto Pasini's Watering the Horses, with footnotes #112

Alberto Pasini, Italian, 1826 - 1899

Watering the Horses, c. 1874

Oil on canvas

32.5 by 25cm., 12¾ by 9¾in.

Private collection

Sold for 47,880 GBP in October 2022

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.

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

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01 Orientalist Painting, Henri Rousseau's The Hunt, with footnotes #111

Henri Rousseau, French, 1875 - 1933

The Hunt

Watercolor on paper

23.8 by 31.2cm., 9¼ by 12¼in.

Private collection

Sold for 9,450 GBP in March 2022

The hunting of wild animals for food, sport or for the defence of people and herds,was common in the ancient Near East, especially in early times.

The hunter’s pursuit of the quarry mirrors Fate’s pursuit of both humans and nonhumans and highlights the ambiguity of the encounter. With breathtaking descriptions of falcons, gazelles, and saluki gazehounds, the artist captures the drama and tension of the hunt...

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 (Rubens, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Murillo, the Titian, Raphael etc ...)

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

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01 Orientalist Painting, Georges Washington's A Mounted Warrior, with footnotes, #110

Georges Washington, French, 1827 - 1910

A Mounted Arab Warrior

Oil on canvas

81.3 by 65cm., 32 by 25½in.

Private collection

Sold for 75,600 GBP in March 2022

Historically, cavalry soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in the roles of reconnaissance, screening, and skirmishing in many armies, or as heavy cavalry for decisive shock attacks in other armies. More on A Mounted Worrior

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.

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

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01 Orientalist Painting, Eugène Fromentin's The Charge, with footnotes #109

Eugène Fromentin, French, 1820 - 1876

The Charge

Oil on canvas

60 by 42cm., 23½ by 16½in.

Private collection

Estimate at 30,000 - 50,000 GBP in March 2022

Fromentin made his first visit to Algeria secretly, in 1846, to attend a wedding. Returning twice to North Africa, he built a successful career as an Orientalist painter and was a frequent contributor to the Paris Salon. The vivid drama of The Charge is characteristic of Fromentin's later work, which often celebrates galloping horses. More on this painting

Eugène Fromentin (October 24, 1820 – August 27, 1876) was a French painter and writer, now better remembered for his writings. He was born in La Rochelle. After leaving school he studied for some years under Louis Cabat, the landscape painter. Fromentin was one of the earliest pictorial interpreters of Algeria, having been able, while quite young, to visit the land and people that suggested the subjects of most of his works, and to store his memory as well as his portfolio with the picturesque and characteristic details of North African life. In 1849, he was awarded a medal of the second class.

In 1852, he paid a second visit to Algeria, accompanying an archaeological mission, and then completed that minute study of the scenery of the country and of the habits of its people which enabled him to give to his after-work the realistic accuracy that comes from intimate knowledge. More on Eugène Fromentin

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01 Orientalist Painting, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant's At Rest, with footnotes, #108

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, French, 1845 - 1902

At Rest

Oil on canvas

80 by 48.3cm., 31½ by 19in.

Private collection

Estimate at GBP 500 – GBP 1,000 in June 2023

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. He was born in Paris and studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse. A journey to Morocco in 1872 strongly influenced his early artistic development and lead him to produce Romantic scenes under the spell of Orientalism. He received a medal in 1876.

After 1880, he changed his manner, devoting himself to mural decorations. He was distinguished as a portrait painter, especially in England, where he was a favorite of the aristocracy. His portrait Mons fils André (Luxembourg) was awarded a medal of honor at the Salon in 1896.

He was made a member of the Institute in 1893, and was a commander of the Legion of Honor. He visited the United States several times, and painted a number of portraits. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns a large mural decoration by Benjamin-Constant entitled Justinian in Council.

He also was a writer of repute, contributing a number of studies on contemporary French painters. He died in Paris on 26 May 1902. More on Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant

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