Leopold Carl Müller

Probably, The French Gallery, London (by 1887)
Private collection, UK (purchased from the above)
Private collection, Salzburg (acquired in the 1960s)
Acquired privately from the above by the present owner circa 2002

Possibly, London, French Gallery, 34th Annual Exhibition, 1887, no. 15 
Salzburg, Residenzgalerie, Orient: Österreichische Malerei zwischen 1848 und 1914, 1997, no. 37, illustrated in the catalogue

The canvas has been strip-lined along the four tacking edges. There is some very light superficial craquelure, as visible in the catalogue illustration. Ultra-violet light reveals some small spots of cosmetic retouching, notably in the sky and along the profile of the dark dromedary in the foreground, and other scattered spots. The picture is otherwise in good condition and ready to hang. Presented in a decorative ripple-cut gilt frame with moulded borders.
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Executed circa 1886, this animated, sun-filled scene brings together many of the elements that populate Müller's best-known compositions - from the water carriers, to the squatting group of conversing men on the left, to the teacher being guided by the boy on the right. The scintillating impressionistic brushwork bear out Müller's observation that 'it makes a big difference whether you paint comfortably in your studio or whether you work out in the open, under a rapidly marching sun.' 

Müller made the first of his nine visits to Cairo in the winter of 1873-74, the inspiration for his first large-scale Orientalist painting Bedouin Camped Near the Pyramids which was bought by the Belvedere (Österreichische Galerie), Vienna. In 1881 he spent six months in the country, two of them in Upper Egypt, staying for nearly two months in Aswan observing the life of the Bedouins. His final, and by his own account most fruitful trip in terms of artistic output, came in 1885-86.

Müller found a ready market for his paintings, notably among English visitors wintering in Cairo, and as early as 1875 was encouraged by the Prince of Wales to send his work to London. Here, he was signed by leading art dealer and owner of the French Gallery, Henry Wallis, who cemented his commercial success. The present work was almost certainly sold by Wallis, as it is known to have been owned by an English collector before it was sold to its new Austrian owners in the 1960s. 

Of all the Austrian Orientalists Müller arguably had the strongest influence on the Viennese school of Orientalists. Appointed professor at Vienna's Akademie der bildenden Künste in 1877, his pupils included Charles Wilda (lots 8 and 17), his nephew Rudolf Swoboda (lot 14), and Franz Kosler.