Painted Mysteries Of the Orient

One of the by-products of the wealth and development in the Middle East has been a renewed focus on Orientalist art. On Friday, Sotheby’s will hold an auction of 19th-century European paintings. For the first time in nearly a decade, there is a dedicated sale and a separate catalog devoted to the 83 lots of paintings and sculptures by European and American artists depicting scenes of life in the Arab world.“When the doors open on the exhibition,” Sotheby’s head of 19thcentury European art, Polly Sartori, said while making a sweeping gesture toward the Orientalist art, “this will be the most crowded part of the show.”Orientalist art is prized by Western collectors, as well as by denizens of Turkey, North Africa, and the Gulf States. But the two sides come at the art from different motivations. Americans are concerned with painters, pedigree, and connoiseurship. Collectors from the Middle East are seeking images of familiar and cherished places. Egyptians want Cairo street scenes. Turkish buyers look for views of old Istanbul. An Algerian might want a painting with the ancient gates of his city and so on.The one attribute that both sides value is accuracy. And it is a quality that requires a keen eye to spot. In the 19th century, painters looking for the path to prominence could easily whip up scenes from the distant East. A journeyman painter could buy some Eastern bric-a-brac at market and dress up his favorite French model in bright robes to sell a picture. The more adventurous would travel east and paint from their sketches upon return. Today, collectors pore over paintings to make sure every topographic and ethnographic detail is correct. Because of that, Sotheby’s has included photographs alongside two of the lots that show the veracity of the paintings’ architectural detail.“La Mosquée Sidi-M’Harez et La Place Baba-Souika, Tunis,” estimated at between $100,000 and $150,000, by American painter Elizabeth Nourse, is illustrated with a 1963 photograph from nearly the same perspective. And Rudolf Ernst’s “The Fountain of Ahmed III, Istanbul” (1892), estimated at between $650,000 and $850,000, is amply backed up with both contemporary and period illustrations of the fountain, a well-known landmark just outside Topkapi Palace. Ernst himself worked from photographs and illustrations; the painting was executed in Paris two years after his return from Turkey. In a fitting 21st-century twist, today’s Middle Eastern buyers also often rely on reproductions to make their purchasing decisions: Many are willing to make substantial acquisitions by simply looking at the auction catalog rather than flying to New York to see the original.But it is well worth the trip to see these paintings. Orientalism attracted some of the most prestigious artists on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are Frenchmen such as Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme, and Eugène Fromentin. American painters such as Frederick Bridgman and Edwin Weeks, as well as Walter Gould, are represented alongside the British watercolorist John Frederick Lewis. Each one of these artists displays extraordinary realist technique, another attribute so prized by the Orientalist collector.Lewis’s watercolor, “Greetings in the Desert,” estimated at between $500,000 and $800,000, is mesmerizing in its detail. The picture of two Bedouins meeting repays close inspection as every tiny tassel and pattern is rendered in vivid and idiosyncratic detail.Fromentin’s “Le Simoun,” estimated at between $300,000 and $400,000, depicts two men on horseback facing into an approaching sandstorm. The horses and robes capture the wind in the image in an ineffable way.The sale of Gould’s “The Public Scribe” (1869), estimated at between $800,000 and $1.2 million, is a rare event. Gould remains an obscure painter because the whereabouts of only a few of his works are known. But his painting is distinctive and much prized. His own story is almost as remarkable. He went to Istanbul in 1849 to paint the Hungarian revolutionary hero Kossuth, who had fled to that city. While in Istanbul, Gould received many commissions from local grandees to paint their portraits, too. Despite a brief return to America in 1852, Gould spent most of the next two decades abroad in Florence painting Orientalist scenes, and did not return to America until after the Civil War in 1866. This painting was completed in 1869.Finally, Gérôme’s “Rustem Pasha Mosque, Istanbul,” estimated at between $1.8 million and $2.2 million, is the star lot of the sale. It appeals to all sides of the Orientalist market for its superb painting — just look at the way the tiles are rendered — and depiction of a significant and recognizable site. Gérôme was the epitome of Orientalist painters. He was prolific, detail-oriented, interested in authenticity (but willing to accommodate his clients), and aspired toward an artistic synthesis beyond the mere documentary.

Painted Mysteries Of the Orient

Painted Mysteries Of the Orient

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