Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Private Collection, Winthrop, Massachusetts (acquired from a Boston gallery in 1947)
Private Collection, New Jersey (received as a gift from the above, her aunt, in 1972 and held until 2011)

Paris, Salon, 1901, no. 305

Catalogue Illustré du Salon de 1901, Paris, 1901, p. 249, no. 305, illustrated
Maurice Hamel, The Salons of 1901, Paris and New York, 1901, illustrated with an engraving facing p. 4
Ilene Susan Fort, Frederick Arthur Bridgman and the American fascination with the exotic Near East, (Ph.D. dissertation), New York, 1990, vol. 1, p. 462

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in very good condition. The canvas is unlined. There is one patch on the reverse in the center which addresses a vertical break in the canvas running between the figures. The paint layer is clean, varnished and retouched along this one thin break. However as far as we can tell, apart from a couple of isolated spots in the upper center, there seem to be no other restorations. Some attention should be paid to the restoration in the center since it is not particularly well done.
"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."

By 1901, when Bridgman selected Après la fête;-port d'Alger as his sole entry for the annual Paris Salon, the artist was at the height of his fame and fortune.  He had been awarded his third silver medal at the Exposition Universelle in 1900 and was made an Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1907.  His work was sought after by collectors and institutions on both sides of the Atlantic.

In the present painting Bridgman continues with his increasing tendency towards a naturalistic aesthetic, emphasizing bright colors and painterly brushwork. The artist's travels to North Africa, beginning with his first trip to Egypt and Algeria in 1872, provided a lasting inspiration for his artistic production. His first glimpse of Algiers was from the steamer Ville de Madrid as it sailed into the capital city's Mediterranean bay.  In his engaging travel book titled Winters in Algeria, Bridgman remarked on the curiosity of seeing "no modern well-built quay and boulevard running the whole length of the city; the Arab town came down to the water's edge, and boats were moored to rings in the very walls of houses... Boats of this kind are still there to-day, and at sunset the smaller ones snugly pack themselves side by side" (F.A. Bridgman, Winters in Algeria, New York, 1889, p. 4).  Given the large scale of Après la fête;-port d'Alger, Bridgman is able to capture the vibrancy of the port of Algiers and further animates the composition with the presence of a group of women stepping up the quay accompanied by attendants and children, all returning from a celebration.  Bridgman had long been fascinated by the attire of the women of Algiers and, as Gerald Ackerman writes, Bridgman "described their clothing [in his book] as well as sketching it in his note books.  He not only watched the family doing housework and celebrating religious feasts at home, but observed the women of the city, following them into the city, to the marketplace and to shrines and cemeteries" (Gerald M. Ackerman, American Orientalists, Paris, 1994, p. 32).

Please note a first edition of The Salons of 1901 (Paris and New York, 1901), featuring the engraving of Après la fête;-port d'Alger in addition to other notable masterpieces of the year, will accompany the present lot.