Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Mr and Mrs Essi Yaghoubi

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, 29 October 2002, lot 47

Mathaf Gallery, London

Private collection

Paris, Salon, 1897, no. 253

Gaston Schéfer, Le Salon de 1897, Paris, 1897, illustrated

Ilene S. Fort, Frederick Arthur Bridgman and the American Fascination with the Exotic Near East, Ph.D. dissert., C.U.N.Y. Graduate Center, 1990, vol. 1, pp. 425-426

This work, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1897, likely depicts Algerian women returning from the festivities on The Day of the Prophet, known as Mawlid - celebrated on either the twelfth or seventeenth day of Rabia al Awal, the third month of the Muslim calendar. Importantly, Mawlid also provided a framework for female involvement, and the present work likely shows a group of women dressed in their ritual drapery. It predates by three years Bridgman's larger work of the subject depicting Algerian women burning candles in the cemetery of Oued El-Kebir outside Blidah, in Algeria.

The first references to celebrations on this day refer to ones taking place in eighth-century Mecca; however, they become more common from the late twelfth-century onwards. When the ceremonies were first performed, they were often connected not only with Mohammed, but also with his daughter Fatima, his grandson Husseyn and the local caliph (hence some references to the Day of the Prophets). Celebrations included torch-lit processions, public feasting and sermons. More recently Mawlid is celebrated with public decoration of streets and houses, processions, the distribution of food and charity, singing, dancing and recitations of texts and poetry dedicated to the life of the Prophet. People may fast during daylight hours and then eat large communal meals after sundown.