Rudolf Ernst

Acquired by the present owner circa 2005

The panel is flat and even and appears to be providing a stable support. Ultraviolet light reveals some minimal spots of retouching, notably in the dark pigments below the arch and near the upper edge to the right. Apart from a minor line of frame rubbing at the lower part of the extreme right edge, this work is overall in good condition, and is ready to hang. Held in a decorative gilt frame, with Islamic ornaments. The catalogue illustration is overall accurate, although the colours are somewhat richer and the white gown cleaner in reality.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In this richly finished work, a fortune teller reads a woman's future outside an arched portico. What he predicts from the mysterious energy flowing between her hand and the sand of fortune is left to the viewer's imagination, adding narrative tension to the painting. In ornament and design, the gateway resembles those portals recorded by the great French artist and scholar Achille Prisse d'Avennes (1807-79), and may owe as much to one of these large, richly coloured lithographs, as to sketches made by Ernst on site. The eclectic components of the composition - the banded stonework, the woman's flowing robes, the gleaming yellow dishdasha of the fortune teller, and the well-worn wooden bench on which he sits - make this painting, like many of Ernst's best works, a veritable tapestry in pattern and texture, a cumulative memory of his disparate travels in the Orient.

After studying at the Vienna Academy, Ernst travelled to Rome and, in the 1880s, to Spain, Morocco, and Tunisia. Later travels would take him to Egypt and, in 1890, to Turkey. In 1876, Ernst settled in France, exhibiting regularly at the Salon de la Société des artistes français and eventually taking French nationality. After starting out painting portraits and genre scenes, from 1885 Ernst turned exclusively to painting Orientalist subjects, which he worked up from the sketches, photographs, souvenirs, and memories accumulated during his travels. Almost all his paintings were executed in his studio in Paris, which he decorated in an eclectic Eastern style, and in which he would paint wearing a taboosh, the better to transport himself mentally into the world created in his canvases.