Leopold Carl Müller

Henry Wallis (acquired directly from the artist in 1882)
Private Collection, London (from 1883)
Arthur Anderson, Esq. (from 1885)
Sale: H.S. Sanders Clark Collection, Sotheby's, London, July 30, 1936, lot 67
Sale: Phillips, London, November 26, 1985, lot 107, illustrated (also illustrated as signature image of sale in Connoisseur, v. 215, p. 77)
Mathaf Gallery, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1985

French Gallery, London, Annual Exhibition, 1882, no. 62, as An Almée's Admirers
Künstlerhaus, Vienna,January 19, 1883, no. 234, as Egyptische Tänzerin
French Gallery, London, Müller Retrospective Exhibition/33^rd Annual Winter Exhibition, 1885-6, no. 5 (as An Almée's Admirers and lent by Arthur Anderson, Esq.)

Athenaeum, April 1, 1882, p. 419
The Academy, November 7, 1885, no. 705, p. 312
E. Ranzoni, "Leopold Carl Müller," Neue Freie Presse, July 8, 1892 Weltkunst, 1985, p. 3391, illustrated
Wendy Buonavenura, Serpent of the Nile: Women and Dance in the Arab World, London, 1994, pp. 58-59, illustrated (as Ghaziya from the Sa'id, Egypt)
Herbert Zemen, Leopold Carl Müller im Künstlerhaus: Die Orientbilder, Vienna, 1998, p. 62
Herbert Zemen, Leopold Carl Müller 1834-1892: ein Künstlerbildnis nach Briefen und Dokumenten, Vienna, 2001, p. 598
Kristian Davies, The Orientalists: Western Artists in Arabia, the Sahara, Persia and India, New York, 2005, pp. 258-59, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This oil on canvas has been lined. The paint layer is stable, even though the cracking is very slightly raised, it has been varnished and does not appear to be damaged or retouched. It is possible that the painting is still dirty yet overall the condition is extremely good. If the frame were to be retouched, the picture could be hung as is.
"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."

On the 27th of February 1881, the Austrian painter Leopold Carl Müller was given an audience with Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria (1821-1889) in Girga, a bustling Upper Egyptian town midway between Cairo and Luxor.  After dining together, the two men were treated to some local entertainment. Müller's letter to his friend and fellow painter August von Pettenkofen (1821-1889), written early the next day, has little to say about the event, but the words are intriguing, nevertheless: ". . . und am Abende haben wir egyptische Tänzerinnen angesehen.  Nehme Dir an Gérôme ein Beispiel!  Höchst neugierig bin ich, was Gérôme hier Neures gemacht haben wird." ["...and in the evening we saw Egyptian dancers. [I should] use Gérôme for an example! I am so curious to know what Gérôme would do if he were here."] (letter no. 309, Zemen, 2001, p. 400).

This would be Müller's sixth trip to Egypt - he traveled nine times to the country between 1873 and 1886, earning the nickname "Müller the Egyptian" from his students at the Vienna Academy - and the reference to Gérôme was apt.  Already by this time, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) had executed a series of pictures depicting the ghawazee (singular ghaziya), or Egyptian female dancers, made famous in Europe by Gerard de Nerval (1808-1855), Gustav Flaubert (1821-1880), and a score of other writers. The best known (and, at the time, most controversial) of Gérôme's works was Le Danse de l'almée, exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1864 and engraved, more than once, by Goupil.¹

Since at least 1877, Müller and Gérôme had shared the same dealer in London, Henry Wallis (1805-1890), and had exhibited paintings at his French Gallery in the Pall Mall.  (Müller's popularity with British audiences had been predicted by none other than the Prince of Wales, who advised Müller to send his work to London in 1875.)  It was at this gallery that the present picture was first exhibited in 1882. An Almée's Admirers - an incorrect but, in the nineteenth century, frequently employed designation of its dancing subject - immediately found a buyer,² and by the time of its subsequent exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna in 1883, it was one of only two paintings by Müller insured for 10,000 Gulden ("a modest sum," Wallis maintained).³

The immediate appeal of An Almée's Admirers, though noteworthy, is not difficult to comprehend. Müller's ability to strike a balance between compelling individual portraiture and a cohesive composition is here beautifully demonstrated; the dramatic, raking light that is a hallmark of Müller's work serves to connect rather than isolate each expressive countenance. (Müller's ethnographic interests were fueled by his Egyptian travels; in a letter written from Aswan on January 1, 1881, Müller spoke enthusiastically about the variety of ethnic types he had seen: "Ich wollte, Ihr könntet die malerischen braunen und schwarzen Araber, Nubier, Bischaris und Barabras sehen, die hier im bunten Gedränge auf den Strassen sich herumtreiben." [I wish that you could see the picturesque brown and black Arabs, Nubians, Bishareens, and Berbers, who hang about the streets in colorful crowds."] letter no. 307, Zemen, 2001, p. 395).  Even the lithe ghaziya herself, the undisputed center around which the picture revolves, relies on the audience around her for the cadence of her dance: The clapping figure on the left echoes the sounds of the drummer nearby, who rhythmically strikes an earthen darabukkeh; this beat is accompanied by a kemengeh, distinguished by its coconut base, played by a man on the right.⁴  Through it all - to it all - the dancer moves and sways.

The ghaziya's gestures suggest that she engages in raqs al-baladi, the traditional Egyptian woman's solo dance.  Her arms, soft and rounded, wrists bent, palms and fingers relaxed, are indicative of this belly-dancing style, as is her low center of gravity.⁵  (This particular pose was a favorite of nineteenth-century artists, as numerous, widely-circulated prints attest; fig. 1.) The ghaziya's elbow-length sleeves and voluminous Turkish-style pantaloons, gathered at the ankle and worn low on the hips, are standard attire; they would have drawn attention to the dancer's actions and allowed her to move freely from one sensuous posture to the next.  Her bared midriff, on the other hand, while equally eye-catching, was not typical of the public performances of these dancers.⁶

The dark complexions of the figures in Müller's picture and the elaborate wrapping of the ababda's turbans on the left suggest an Upper Egyptian setting, a detail that Müller's letter to Pettenkofen - and historical circumstances - would support. In 1834, in an effort to "improve" the moral fiber of the city, the Egyptian Pasha Muhammad 'Ali had banned the ghawazee from Cairo; they were ordered to the Upper Egyptian towns of Qena, Esna, and Aswan.  Though this ban was lifted in 1866, travelers still made a point of visiting these notorious locations, in order to witness the most uninhibited versions of the ghawazee's performances. Not for the pleasure of European men alone, however, the ghawazee were also known to entertain local audiences: "The Ghawázee perform, unveiled, in the public streets, even to amuse the rabble" (Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London, 1860, p. 377).

Though it is not known if Müller witnessed this particular dancer with the Crown Prince of Austria on that cool February night, he would certainly encounter her again.  Her features reappear in several other figure studies made by the artist, most conspicuously in his Beduinmädchen of roughly the same period (fig. 2). In the only other work by Müller to bear a similar title, an oil sketch called Ägytpische Tänzerin, the model is identified by the artist as "Hamida"; this is not the same woman as in the present painting, however. (According to Müller's biographer, Herbert Zemen, a sketch for the present painting exists in a Viennese private collection [2001, p 598].  It is unclear whether this shows the dancing figure, or merely other aspects of the composition.)

These evocative figure studies were among the hundreds that Müller made from nature during his numerous trips to Egypt, and which served him in the creation of his complex compositions.  (Several of these sketches were exhibited in the Künstlerhaus in 1883.)   In addition to these aides memoires, Müller made extensive use of the new medium of photography, from at least the 1870s forward. In 1875, Müller produced a series of photographs in Egypt with his traveling companions and fellow artists Rudolf Carl Huber (1839-1896), Franz von Lenbach (1836-1904), and Hans Makart (1840-1884), in a palace (al-Musafir Khana) rented for the purpose; some of these were used as illustrations in Georg Ebers' Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque.⁷  Such materials help to explain Müller's compelling depictions of figures in motion and the convincing rendition of brilliant sunlight, as it falls over fabrics, flesh, and architecture.⁸   And it is these qualities which continue to draw to Müller's pictures as many admirers as the Almée herself.

Recently, eleven pictures by Müller were included in Orientalische Reise.  Malerei und Exotik im späten 19. Jahrhundert, an exhibition organized at the Hermesvilla in Vienna (October 16, 2003 - April 12, 2004).

This catalogue note was written by Dr. Emily M. Weeks.

¹ Though a resounding success with the public, some critics found the subject in poor taste.  Leon Lagrange believed it too immoral for public exhibition, and deplored the artist's decision to make such an "objectionable" figure the least bit attractive (L. Legrange, "Le Salon de 1864," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, June 1864, 16, p. 529).
² An almeh, from the Arabic analeim, refers to a learned woman, high in status and educated in the musical and literary arts; European travelers mistakenly applied this term to any female entertainer. By 1850, it came to be associated most closely with the ghawazee, or Egyptian dancing girls who were often also prostitutes.
³ The other was Volksschule in Oberägypten (1881, Österreichischen Galerie).
⁴ In keeping with tradition, one of these musicians may be the woman's husband: "[I]f she [a ghaziya] be a dancer, he [her husband] is also her musician" (Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, London, 1860, p. 379).
⁵ The Egyptian style of raqs sharqi (belly-dance) may be compared to the Lebanese style, in which arm gestures are stylized and dramatic.  In all forms of this dance, the body's center of gravity is low in the hips, in contradistinction to Western ballet.
⁶ Underneath their silver girdles or hip-shawls, the ghawazee wore long jackets or bolero-style waistcoats, tightly fitted to reveal the contours of their body.  In private, a chemise of transparent white muslin might be worn with pantaloons; complete exposure of the body, however, was rare.
⁷ Ebers (1837-1898) was a German archaeologist and novelist.  Müller would contribute several illustrations to various editions of his book beginning in 1878.
⁸ Müller's facility as a technician and his sensitivity to line, light, and shadow, may also be indebted to his early training under his father, the lithographer Leopold Franz Müller (1807-1862).