Rudolf Ernst

Private Collection, United Kingdom, in circa 1950 (and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 13, 2006, lot 232, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very good condition. The panel is flat and un-reinforced on the reverse. The paint layer is most likely clean and there are no restorations visible either under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye. It seems more than likely that the condition is perfect and the picture should 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."

One of the genre's most enduring masters, Rudolf Ernst exhibited his works at the Salon de la Société des Artistes Français for over sixty years and is today one of the most celebrated and sought-after Orientalist painters of the nineteenth century.  Among Ernst's best-known subjects is the figure of a Nubian guard or sumptuously dressed Arab gentleman, positioned at the entrance to a palace, harem, or otherwise privileged space.  Several Orientalist artists made a specialty of this theme, in fact, Ernst's dear friend Ludwig Deutsch (1855-1935) notably among them.  But few explored it with as much energy or as much imagination as Ernst himself.  Indeed, Ernst's ability to carry certain objects, accessories, and even individuals from one composition to the next, and yet create an original narrative around them, recalls the art of film-making: like a still from a movie, each of his "doorway pictures" seems to represent a meaningful moment in a larger, interconnected story.  In The Presentation, a young man offers a silver dagger to an elaborately draped (and consequently, visually formidable) Arab figure on the stairs.  His gesture is submissive, but there is no indication that the weapon he holds is a token of his own surrender – he wears no visible belt or sheath from which it has been drawn.  Perhaps he is the courier of an unseen visitor, whose identity can only be determined by turning to another of Ernst's impressive canvases, and the next exhilarating scene.

 

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