Carl Neumann

Private collection, Paris

In this expansive view of Beirut Neumann captures important landmarks all bathed in a golden light. The domes and minarets behind the city walls on the right belong to the mosques of Sidon. The walled structure on the left, protruding into the sea, is the sea castle (Qalaat Saida al-Bahriya). Sidon and Beirut Port are visible and Al-Kharrubat and Jabal Musa mountains are depicted in the distance. The white sails of two boats bloom in the wind and soft waves crash gently on the rocky shore.

Neumann was born in Copenhagen in 1833 and studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Art. He spent time in England from 1857 and visited the Middle East from the early 1870s. He depicted a number of coastal scenes including the Thames near Greenwich and also painted Cairo, Alhambra, Constantinople and North Africa.