Edwin Lord Weeks

Sale, American Art Association, “Very Important Finished Pictures, Studies, Sketches and Original Drawings by the Late Edwin Lord Weeks to be sold at unrestricted public sale by order of his widow,” New York,  March 15-17, 1905, lot 265
Henry D. G. Rohlfs, Brooklyn (acquired from the above)
Orr's Gallery, San Diego (as The Rug Sellers, according to a label on the reverse)
Acquired from the above, 1972

Charlotte, Mint Museum, Spectacle of Realism, An Exhibition of 19th Century European and American Paintings, April 15 - May 17, 1970, no. 51, illustrated (as On the Way to Market)

Edwin Lord Weeks, From the Black Sea Through Persia and India. New York, 1895, p. 29-30, describing the present scene or a similar one.
Florence N. Levy, ed., American Art Annual 1905-1906, New York, 1905, p. 105.

This painting has an old lining, and has not been recently cleaned or restored. The painting does not appear to be dirty and the colors are clean and bright. The surface shows finely patterned craquelure in isolated areas in the composition and vertical craquelure along the bottom, which may benefit from consolidation. Under UV, there is a brushed area of "touch-up" in the upper left area of sky, and minor brushed re-enforcements in the background and behind the figures. Old varnish fluoresces green unevenly throughout.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Edwin Lord Weeks was one of the most important American orientalist painters of the late 19th century, and unlike many of his colleagues, his work reflects his travels to the regions he depicted. In 1892, Weeks traveled overland from Turkey to India by way of Persia, and published a travel account, From the Black Sea through Persia and India.

This large, expansive painting shows the artist’s own caravan crossing a stream in the vast Persian desert somewhere between Tabreez and Teheran in the fall of 1892. Although it is based on sketches and possibly photographs executed at the time, the finished work was painted in the artist’s studio around 1894-95 after his return to Paris. Despite some dimensional variance, this is most probably Horses at the Ford—Persia, sold at the artist’s estate sale in 1905. The estate sale catalogue describes it:

“Noonday, and the caravan crosses a stream, where the horses pause to drink, and splash a while in the cool water. All around a wilderness of yellow sand shows they have just traversed a dry and arid country.”

After reaching Kizildize, Persia, Weeks wrote: “We are soon crossing fords where broad sheets of white pebbles frame in the narrow water channels, reflecting the indigo-blue of the zenith.” (Weeks, From the Black Sea, New York, 1895, pp.29–30)

The painting reflects a rugged landscape, which Weeks called a “land of vast horizons,” with Persia’s famous “purple mountains” rising behind the “desert plateau.” The pack-horses, which Weeks termed “weather-beaten,” are burdened with heavy rectangular trunks, wrapped in carpets and bound with ropes. The horses are decorated with embroidered bridles, with tassels and metal bells hanging below the neck on either side. The lead figure on horseback is “Hadji”, Weeks’ head chavadar, or driver, captured with sunburnt face, patchy blue costume and Persian-style white cap and upturned slippers.

Weeks obviously intended this painting, with its finely-rendered, realistically-painted horses and riders, as a souvenir of his most difficult and dangerous expedition. In his early forties at the time, the overland trip was daily fraught with peril from mountains, deserts and bands of “brigands” as Weeks termed them. Cholera and typhoid fever were epidemic, and his American companion died from the latter en route. It is an understatement to say that Weeks was a bold adventurer as well as a gifted painter, and his intrepid travels are memorialized in this fine and rare painting.

This painting will be included in the Weeks catalogue raisonné under preparation by Dr. Ellen K. Morris. We are grateful to Dr. Morris for contributing this catalogue essay on the painting, A Letter of Authentication by Dr. Morris accompanies the painting.