T he Orientalist Sale brings together paintings representing the landscapes, people and cultures of North Africa, Egypt, the Levant, Arabia and the Ottoman world during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Highlights from the sale include sumptuously dressed women in pleasant idleness, superbly captured by Rudolf Ernst, Frederick Arthur Bridgman and Fabio Fabbi. Alberto Pasini in his finely painted work By the Fountain brings together his careful observations of everyday life in Turkey. Eugène Girardet in an intimate work The Game of Draughts, captures a quiet moment in the backstreets of a North African town. Other highlights include a work by Ernst and Deutsch’s fellow artist, Rudolf Weisse, whilst the French school is represented by Jules Taupin, Eugène Baugniés, Georges Washington and Henri Rousseau. Italian artist Ippolito Caffi was one of the few artists to visit the Middle East and The Tobacco Merchant from 1844 offers a unique depiction of a Cairene merchant from first-hand observations.
The upcoming edition of the Orientalist Sale shows the breadth and skill of Rudolf Ernst as an Orientalist painter. Proficient in both oil and watercolour he depicted wide ranging subjects with colouristic resplendence and extraordinary attention to detail, evidenced by three distinguished works. In the Madrasa, with touching observation, presents children intently concentrating on the instruction of their teacher in a place of learning. The Farrier captures an example of every-day life, within an internal courtyard a horse is attended by two farriers, the customer resplendent in a rich purple garment. In Sweet Lullaby Ernst focuses on the play of surfaces, textures, and designs within an ornate room, as two women, thoughts far away, relax on a carpet-covered divan.
A new book celebrating the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia’s permanent collection of Orientalist paintings.
