Important Works from the Najd Collection
Important Works from the Najd Collection
Auction Closed
October 22, 05:34 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
JEAN-JOSEPH BENJAMIN-CONSTANT
French
1845-1902
AT THE BAZAAR
signed Benj. Constant lower right
oil on canvas
55 by 85cm., 21½ by 33½in.
Mathaf Gallery, London
Purchased from the above
Caroline Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, pp. 29-30, catalogued & illustrated
Lynne Thornton, The Orientalists Painter-Travellers, Courbevoie, 1994, p. 26, catalogued & illustrated
Lynne Thornton, Les Orientalistes, peintres voyageurs, Paris, 2001, p. 194, catalogued & illustrated
Toulouse, Musée des Augustins; Montreal, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Benjamin-Constant: Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism, 2014-15, no. 174, illustrated in the catalogue
The present work depicts two traders examining swords, surrounded by myriad objects, some of which Benjamin-Constant may have collected while living in Tangier. The composition includes a pair of finely observed nineteenth century Rabat carpets as well as metal pots and ceramics.
