Leopold Carl Müller

Sale: Aguttes, Paris, 24 November 2022, lot 5

Purchased from the above auction by the present owner

This luminous and animated composition epitomises Müller’s ambitious multi-figural compositions and bears out his 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 same year as Frederick Arthur Bridgman), 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. 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, Rudolf Swoboda, and Franz Kosler.

An expanded version of the present work, completed by the artist in 1878 and entitled Market in Cairo, is held by the Belvedere in Vienna.