Rudolf Ernst

Solsbro Court Gallery, Torquay, England

Sale: Sotheby's, Billingshurst, 23 May 2001, lot 1407

Sale: Rabourdin & Choppin de Janvry, Paris, 19 November 2001, lot 111

Purchased from the above sale (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 1 February, 2018, lot 859)

Purchased from the above sale by the present owner

Dervishes in Islam were members of a Sufi fraternity, religious mendicants who chose or accepted material poverty. Their lives were dedicated to the universal values of love and service, and on the renunciation of ego to reach God, and the alms they received were not for their own good but to help others in need. In most Sufi orders, a dervish was known to practice the ritual prayer of dhikr through dance or religious practices to attain the ecstatic trance to reach God. Their most popular practice was Sama, which is associated with the thirteenth-century mystic Rumi. In folklore, dervishes are often credited with the ability to perform miracles, including healing powers.

In the present work, a dervish descends stairs carrying a kashkul, or beggar’s bowl. Considered to be the most emblematic accoutrement of the wandering dervish, kashkuls were primarily used to collect alms and occasionally as drinking vessels. In later centuries, many functioned as decorative objects since a devoted dervish would be unlikely to carry an elaborately carved kashkul as it would contradict his belief in the renunciation of worldly goods.