Adolf Schreyer

Williamstown, Massachusetts, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute

Wax lined; work would benefit from a cleaning, widely patterned craquelure visible throughout composition. Under UV: Old varnish fluoresces as do later additions of stippled paint around treetops and reinforcements added around saddle and ares around figures.
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While Schreyer often captured Arab warriors on the move or in battle, the present work finds two travelers at rest under the shade of a tall tree, rifle cast aside and horses left to graze on the scrabbly grass. Schreyer’s loose, bold brush and warm palette of earthy tones effectively creates a feeling of place enhanced by his own experience on the field. Trained as a painter in Germany and France in the Academic tradition, later mentored by Eugène Fromentin, in 1855 the artist enlisted as a field agent, painting with the regiments of Austrian Prince von Thurn und Taxis during the Crimean War (1853/4-1856). Later travel to Syria, Egypt, and Algeria further informed his painting and afforded him the reputation of a “complete” Orientalist painter, indeed he went so far as to learn Arab dialects and rode with Bedouin horseman.  Horses were of particular interest to the artist and his ability to accurately and sensitively record the musculature of the grey and brown equines of the present work was informed by early training at the Städelsches Kunstinsitut and later the Düsseldorf Academy.  Schreyer’s skill and impressive compositions like the present work earned  him much success throughout the late nineteenth century and an international reputation with a large number of his works entering the collections of European aristocrats and powerful Americans.