View full screen - View 1 of Lot 48. The Pasha’s Admirer.

Property from the Jazairy Collection

Moritz Oppenheim

The Pasha’s Admirer

Auction Closed

October 24, 01:12 PM GMT

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Jazairy Collection


Moritz Oppenheim

German

1800 - 1882

The Pasha’s Admirer


signed and dated MOPPENHEIM / 1841 lower right

oil on canvas

Unframed: 63 by 47cm., 24¾ by 18½in.

Framed: 71.5 by 59cm., 28¼ by 23¼in.

Sale: Dorotheum, Vienna, 9 November 2020, lot 570

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Georg Heuberger and Anton Merk, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim: Die Entdeckung des jüdischen Selbstbewußtseins in der Kunst, catalogue raisonné, Frankfurt, 1999, no. 46 (as A Turkish Sign of Love)

On a roof terrace, which offers a view over an oriental city in the evening light, a man sits cross-legged. His clothes, the carpets and the brass-coloured water pipe evoke an atmosphere of subtle luxury.


On closer inspection, action unfolds, in the upper right-hand corner a delicate hand appears behind a curtain. It seems to have just dropped the rose that lies in the foreground. Following this ‘sign of love’, the protagonist turns upwards and makes eye contact. His classic profile, full beard and deep black eyelashes attract the viewer’s attention and form the centre of the composition. Carved into the stone lintel above the door is the Arabic word القرآن meaning The Qur'an.