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19th Century European Paintings

8 Orientalist Works from the Collection of Pierre Bergé

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In Sotheby's upcoming sale, Pierre Bergé, From One Home to Another, from 29-31 October, this prolific collector's array of Orientalist works will be brought to auction. On these paintings, Bergé said “What I’m trying to say is that this trip to Spain has strengthened my resolve, and increased my admiration for Moorish culture” Pierre Bergé, Lettres à Yves, 2010. Click the image above to view the slideshow.

Past Auction
Pierre Bergé: From One Home to Another
30–31 October 2018 | 10:30 AM CET | Paris

8 Orientalist Works from the Collection of Pierre Bergé

  • Charles Knighton Warren
    The Nubian Guard, 1883
    Estimate €40,000–60,000
    Knighton Warren lived in London and regularly exhibited portraits, genre scenes and historical subjects at the Royal Academy between 1878 and 1892. It is likely he travelled to the East but it is not known at what date. Among his works on the subject of the Orient can be cited An Egyptian Musician kept at the Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, and Rameses the Great and his Queen Playing a Game of Draughts, exhibited in 1889.
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  • Ludwig Deutsch
    Guarding the palace, 1888
    Estimate €300,000–500,000
    Greatly influenced by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Ludwig Deutsch made many trips to Egypt. Although little is known about his trips, it would seem that several works were painted on site. Deutsch employed particularly rich and harmonious colours in this composition. The meticulous detail of clothes and accessories matches the exactitude of the guard's expression, both defiant and distant. This gift of observation and exact rendering made Deutsch one of the most important Orientalist painters.
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  • Eugène Fromentin
    The Chess game
    Estimate €25,000–35,000
    Fromentin traveled three times to Algeria (in 1846, 1847-48 and 1852-53). These trips deeply influenced Fromentin. The painting presented here is characteristic of the style of his orientalist works painted in the 1850s, when he painted a certain number of interior scenes. In the present painting, Fromentin worked thoroughly on the three players, placed at the center of the composition, with their gazes focused on the checkerboard. The artist also depicted the details of the architecture with minute care, such as the tiles above the columns.
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  • Charles-Emile-Hippolyte Lecomte-Vernet
    Rebecca at the well, 1869
    Estimate €40,000–60,000
    Son of painter Hippolyte Lecomte and nephew of Horace Vernet, Emile Lecomte-Vernet studied with his uncle and with Léon Cogniet. He traveled to Algeria, Morocco and Egypt. From 1843, he regularly exhibited orientalist subjects and others at the Paris Salon.
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  • 19th Century French School
    Man lamenting the death of his steed
    Estimate €10,000–15,000
    This picture is a copy after Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse’s famous composition Arab pleurant son coursier presented at the salon of 1812. Mauzaisse started exhibiting at the Salon de Paris in 1808. Four years later, he obtained a golden medal for Arabe pleurant son coursier (Arab Lamenting his Steed) presented at the Salon of 1812 n°627 and now kept at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers. The subject was taken from a contemporary poet, Charles-Hubert Millevoye, which tells the story of a man's despair after the death of his horse. He avenged his horse by killing the murderer, who lies prostrate in the background on the right. A replica is kept at the Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama. Mauzaisse depicts the sentimental fusion between man and horse and the brutality of their separation through death. By painting a vast, arid and desolate desert in the background, he evokes the solitude of men and their vain wanderings.
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  • Henri-Emilien Rousseau
    Two arab cavaliers in the desert, 1918
    Estimate €15,000–25,000
    Henri-Emilien Rousseau studied at the Beaux-Arts in Paris with Jean-Léon Gérôme. He was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1900 and also received a travel grant, which allowed him to discover North Africa.
    Passionate about horses, orientalist compositions representing cavaliers, such as this painting, are his favourite subjects.
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  • Eugène Delacroix
    Sidi Abdallah, provincial ruler of the Regency of Algiers, rue Amour, June 27th 1832
    Estimate €60,000–80,000
    This watercolour was painted by Delacroix in Algeria during his stay in Algiers from June 25 to 28 1832. Delacroix was introduced to Léopold-Victor Poirel, head engineer of the port who succeeded in getting him authorization to enter a harem. The Turkish owner, Sidi Abdallah, previously Reis of the dey of Algeria was also a former corsair. His house was situated near the port, on the corner of the small rue Amour and the Khear-Pacha mosque, which was later destroyed. This unhoped for glimpse of a world forbidden to men inspired four watercolours by Delacroix of the sisters Mouni, Sohra and Bahya Ben, and their neighbor, Zohra Taboudji. These compositions would later serve as preparatory sketches for the famous painting Femmes d'Alger dans leur intérieur (Musée du Louvre, Paris).
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  • Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouÿ
    The harem’s gate, souvenir of Cairo, 1876.
    Estimate €400,000–600,000
    Jean-Jules Antoine Lecomte du Noüy studied with Charles Gleyre, and then with Emile Signol, before entering Jean-Léon Gérôme's studio who would influence him throughout his career. At the end of his studies, his passion for the Middle East and for antiquity grew, and he travelled to the East (visiting Greece, Egypt, Turkey, Anatolia), bringing back with him very precise documentation that he continually used for his works throughout his career. He also travelled to Algeria in 1883. Lecomte du Noüy drew from this documentation for all the details and the accessories. Remarkable for both its complex composition and richness of detail, the artist combined a technical perfection reminiscent of Ingres with a photographic realism worthy of Gérôme, based on his wealth of documentation, to which he continually referred. The painting depicts the entrance of a harem at dawn: the sun is rising and, with it, the guards.
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