Alfred Dehodencq

oil on canvas

Purchased by the previous owner in the United States in 2008

Venetia Porter & Liana Saif (eds.), The Hajj: Collected Essays, London, 2013, p. 200, pl. 9, illustrated

The canvas has been relined. The overall appearance of the work under normal light is good and it is clean and ready to hang. Ultra-violet light reveals a number of restorations, notably a circa 9 by 10cm area in the cloud towards the middle of the sky, strokes to a circa 30cm-wide horizontal complex repaired tear to the left of this, a circa 13 by 5cm area towards the top of the right framing edge, a small circa 3 by 5cm repair below the horizon to the left, and scattered more minor strokes of strengthening to the figures with a circa 12cm-wide repaired tear in the figures near the lower centre. There is a faint pattern of hairline craquelure visible notably in the dark pigments of the foreground. Presented in a decorative gilt frame.
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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."

Dehodencq's large and lavish rendition of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) en route to Mecca is an especially magnificent and wonderfully detailed painting of the subject by a Western artist. The landscape is not specific, but the shoreline might suggest a location on the Red Sea, south of Aqaba. At the centre of the enfilade of dignitaries, janissaries, soldiers, and musicians and mounted on the leading camel is the holy mahmal, the elaborate coffer containing the Koran that accompanies the pilgrims to Mecca.

Ottoman control of the Hajj developed with the rise of the Ottoman Empire, and the sacking of Constantinople in 1453. As one of the five pillars of Islam along with prayer five times a day, fasting, the giving of alms, and bearing witness that there is only one true God, each Muslim was and is required to attempt Hajj at least once in a lifetime to visit the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Setting off in the last month of the Islamic year, tens of thousands of pilgrims from all segments of society joined these caravans, which under Ottoman control were in their size and organisation like moving cities.