Émile Coriolan Hippolyte Guillemin

signed E. ^le Guillemin/1879

Explication des Ouvrages de Peinture, Sculpture, Architecture, Gravure et Lithographie des Artistes Vivants, Palais des Champs-Elysées, Paris, 1879, p. 440

Overall in fair to good condition. Original polychromy. Minute chips to edges of levanto rouge marble base. As visible in the catalogue illustration, there are some green traces of liquid tracks running down the neck and upper chest. We believe it could have been from an oil treatment. Those traces can be professionally removed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Orientalism was a Western fascination with the exoticism of other continents which became popular during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Romantic portrayals of African countries in contemporary literature and operas, such as L'Africaine and Aïda fueled this exoticism. In America, the Turkish Bazaar in 1876 at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition further heightened the fascination with "Turkish" or "Moorish" subjects which lasted well into the 1880s. Orientalist themes allowed artists to break away from the formal monochromatic palette of Neoclassicism.  Their use of a variety of gilt and silvered bronze, marble, onyx, and colored stones was in stark contrast to the classically themed sculptures in bronze and marble fashionable in the preceding decades. 

Émile Coriolan Hippolyte Guillemin was one of the most prolific and successful French Orientalist sculptors, specializing in figurative works and was inspired by the Middle and Far East.  He went to great lengths to ensure the ethnographic accuracy of the costumes and physiognomies of his busts. His representations of Indian falconers, Turkish, Kurdish, and Algerian maidens, as well as Japanese courtesans, firmly established his reputation as one of the foremost Orientalist sculptors from the mid-1870s. Guillemin first exhibited Zeibeck at the 1879 Salon.