20 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists, with foot notes, 6

Philippe-Jacques van Bree

ANTWERP 1786 - 1871 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM SCHOOL

PHILIPPE-JACQUES VAN BREE; GIOVANNI BELLINI IN MAHOMET II'S COURT; SIGNED LOWER LEFT; OIL HEIGHTENED WITH GOLD ON PANEL

Signed lower left P. van Bree

Oil heightened with gold on panel 

58.5 x 73.5 cm; 23 by 29 3/4 in

Sultan Mohammed II, famous conqueror who besieged and captured Constantinople in 1453, was an avid collector of works of art. He brought the famous Venetian painter Gentile Bellini (circa 1429-1507) in Constantinople, on the occasion of the peace agreements signed between the Republic of Venice and the Ottoman Empire in 1479. On that occasion, the famous Bellini executed portrait Mahomet II, now preserved in the National Gallery in London. More, (See below)

Philippe-Jacques van Bree (1786 - 1871), scholar of his brother Mattheas, was born at Antwerp in 1786. He studied at Antwerp, in Paris (where he became a scholar of Girodet), and at Rome; and also visited Germany and England. He employed himself on historical, fancy, and architectural subjects. Of the last, the Belgian Government purchased his 'View of the Interior of the Church of St. Peter at Rome,' and presented him with a gold medal in addition to the price. He was made conservator of the Museum at Brussels, where he died in 1871. More

Gentile Bellini (1429–1507) 

العربية: بورتريه للسلطان محمد الفاتح للرسام جنتيلي بلليني, 1480

The Portrait of Ottoman Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror by İtalian painter Gentile Bellini, 1480.

Oil on canvas

Height: 69.9 cm (27.5 in). Width: 52.1 cm (20.5 in).

National Gallery 

The attribution to Bellini is not proved, but the sitter is reasonably identified as Mehmet II (1432 - 1481). Gentile Bellini visited his court in Constantinople. There is insufficient evidence for deciding whether the picture is a copy or a very damaged original."

Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN A COURTYARD

Signed lower right Durand

Watercolour on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

Art historian Marion Vidal-Bue was born and lived in Algiers until its independence. She comes from a family of builders established in the country in 1832. She has written books on painters of Algeria, especially to witness the artistic importance and influence of her native country at the time of the French presence. 

She participated in the artistic illustration of the works of the Scientific Exploration of Algeria, published in 1844-1867, commissioned by the Minister of War in 1837. These watercolours form a rare and interesting set which shows scenes of life in Algiers 1830-1840 years; in the early days of the arrival of the French in Algeria. 

Jean-Baptiste Henri Durand-Brager

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

WOMEN IN AN INTERIOR WITH NURSE CONCERNED FOR A BABY 

Signed lower left Durand

Watercolour on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

SCENE IN A CAFE

Signed lower left Durand

Watercolour on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

DANCER AND MUSICIANS

Signed, located and dated lower left Durand Algiers in 1840 (?) 

Watercolour on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

RECEPTION BY NIGHT IN A PALACE

Signed lower left Durand

Watercolour on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY 

MUSICIANS AND AFRICAN DANCERS IN THE COURTYARD OF A PALACE

Watercolor on paper 

48 x 39.5 cm; 18 7/8 by 15 1/2 in

FRENCH SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

ACROBATS

Signed lower right Durand

Watercolour on paper 

25.5 x 40 cm; 10 by 15 3/4 in

Jean-Leon Gerome

VESOUL 1824 - 1904 PARIS

STUDY FOR A MOORISH BATH, TURKISH WOMAN IN BATH 

Signed and dedicated lower left To his friend Bourgain JL Gérôme

Oil on canvas 

50.5 x 40.5 cm; 20 by 16 in

This study is a preparatory sketch for the large painting (81,5 x 65,5cm) A Moorish bath, Turkish woman bathing, painted in the 1870s and kept in a private collection (See Below). There are some other known preparatory studies: a drawing of the same composition and the same dimensions as our sketch and two oil sketches, larger format than the one presented here.

For Gérôme, a good academician, the creative process was primarily intellectual. He reflected on a conception of the final composition, which he then seized on an initial study that was the basis for the further work. This  is probably the first study of a Turkish bath, a Turkish woman bathing, which explains its freshness and spontaneity.
Gérôme worked hard on the silhouette and the attitude of the nude bather.

In all known studies to a Turkish bath, a Turkish woman bathing, the African servant is outlined. It is only in the finished work that the face appears clearly. 

Gérôme tried to create an intense psychological relationship between bather's surprise at a specific time of her dress, and her maid; he is leaning over the basin, hands resting on the edge, tense, waiting impatiently for the moment when she will feel, just out of the bath, the delicious sensation of cold foam soap.


Studies and sketches of Gerome oils were often completed by other painters, to make them more commercial. Our sketch was lucky to escape the retouching and remain intact, unaltered and entirely Gérôme's hand. More

Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He is considered one of the most important painters from this academic period, and in addition to being a painter, he was also a teacher with a long list of students. More

Jean-Leon Gerome

VESOUL 1824 - 1904 PARIS

A MOORISH BATH, TURKISH WOMAN IN BATH, 1885

The final painting

Frederik-Jan-Pieter Portielje

AMSTERDAM 1829 - 1895 ANTWERP, DUTCH SCHOOL

YOUNG LADY WEARING A MIDDLE-EASTERN COSTUME

Signed lower right Portielje

Oil on panel 

59 x 48 cm; 23 1/4 by 18 7/8 in

Jan Frederik Pieter Portielje (Amsterdam, 1829 - 1908) was a Dutch-Belgian painter. He was the tenth child by Gerrit Portielje, bookseller and publisher in Amsterdam, and Jacoba Zeegers. He studied at the Academy of Amsterdam from 1842 to 1849 with, among others, Valentine Bing and Jan von Braet Uberfeldt. Between 1851 and 1853 he stayed several times for extended periods of time in Paris, possibly during the summer months when the Academy was closed due to holidays. He also worked as a portraitist and as such had a growing clientele in Brussels and Antwerp.

His oeuvre includes portraits, scenes of elegant ladies in gardens, parks, or luxurious interiors. The interiors are either heavy or elegant neo-Baroque Napoleon III. He painted Western and Southern or Oriental women, often adorned with jewels. His painting are realistic, with an eye for detail and texture, intended as an elegant genre painting without much depth.

On some paintings he collaborated with another artist. There are paintings known, together with Frans Lebret (1820-1909) and Eugène Remy Maes (1849-1931).


After his studies Portielje remained in Antwerp. He married there in 1853. More

Emile Régnault de Maulmain

LONS-LE-SAUNIER 1836 - 1897 NEVY-SUR-SEILLE

MARKET SCENE IN A STREET

Signed and dated lower right G. Regnault '78

Oil on canvas 

55.5 x 40.8 cm; 21 7/8 by 16 in

Emile Regnault de Maulmain

LONS-LE-SAUNIER 1836 - 1897 NEVY-SUR-SEILLE

THE REST IN THE OASIS

Signed lower left Regnault

Oil on canvas 

47 x 73 cm; 18 1/2 by 28 3/4 in

Maulmain Emile Regnault, 1836-1897, French school. Maulmain was a pupil of Miss Lamotte Lobrichon and Alberto Pasini. He exhibited at the Salon from 1863 until 1882, especially scenes of Algeria.

Georges Washington

MARSEILLE 1827 - 1910 PARIS

BATTLE SCENE;

Signed lower left G. Washington

Oil on canvas 

46 x 55 cm; 18 1/8 by 21 2/3 in

Georges Washington  1827 - 1910.  Pupil of Francois Picot, Washington exhibited  in the years 1857 to 1901 almost exclusively with oriental scenes. He received in 1893 a medal. He had become primarily known as a painter of horses. Works his hand in Dunkirk, Limoges and LiIle in public collections.. He traveled to North Africa where he brought many views of Algeria and Morocco. He executed many animated scenes of horses rearing, which earned him a great reputation.

Henri Rousseau

CAIRO 1875 - 1933 AIX EN PROVENCE

THE FANTASIA OF NEMENCHAS, ALGERIA 

Signed and dated lower left Henri Rousseau 

Oil on canvas 

65 x 92 cm; 25 5/8 by 36 1/4 in

Rousseau creates a  fantasy he chooses to place on the plateau of Nemenchas, Algeria. The tight framing on the group of riders launched in full immerses the viewer in the scene. The proximity thus created communicates a feeling of intense movement. The determination and pride of the riders and their horses, some of which rear up in a frenzy, is beautifully rendered in vibrant color buttons.

Henri Rousseau Henry, Emilien Rousseau (Cairo 1875 - Aix-en-Provence in 1933) is an Orientalist painter. A pupil of Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Beaux Arts in Paris, he won the second Grand Prix de Rome in 1900 and a travel grant at the Salon of French Artists. He traveled to Belgium, the Netherlands, North Africa, Spain and Italy where he admired the great masters (Rubens, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Murillo, the Titian, Raphael etc ...)

After this initiatory journey, he settled in Versailles and set up his studio at the Villa des Arts in Paris. In 1919 he moved to Aix in Provence with his large family (seven children). Knight of the Legion of Honour in arts. His work  is dedicated to Tunisia, Algeria and especially Morocco, Provence and the Camargue remained its anchor points. His success was with a bourgeois and wealthy clientele, where he sold his work at numerous exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Stockholm, Marseilles. More

Jules-Pierre van Biesbroeck

PORTICI 1873 - 1965 BRUXELLES, ECOLE BELGE

WOMAN CARRYING AN AMPHORA

Signed lower left Van Biesbroeck

Oil on panel 

58 x 32.4 cm; 22 4/5 by 12 1/4 in

Jules Pierre van Biesbroeck (1873 - 1965) was a Belgian painter of landscapes and portraits, as well as sculptures.

He gained his artistic skills from his father Jules Evarist van Biesbroeck. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent.  Debuted in 1888 at the Salon des Champs-Elysées in Paris with his large-format painting "Le lancement d'Argos", which created a scandal. He was like his father, a professor of the Academy in Ghent. On a  trip to North Africa in 1926, he began to treat themes of the Orient. He experimented mainly with light effects in his paintings. Until 1935 he also maintained a studio in Algiers.

JP van Biesbroeck also had intensive contacts with the Socialist Workers' Movement in Ghent.

Attributed to George Derville Rowlandson

1861 - 1928, ENGLISH SCHOOL

CAVALIERS COMING OUT OF A FORTIFIED GATE

Signed and dated lower left GD Rowlandson 1888

Oil on canvas 

83.5 x 61 cm; 32 7/8 by 24 in

George Derville Rowlandson (1861–1928) was a British painter. He is best known for his equestrian portraits. Some of his work can be found at the Museum of Polo and Hall of Fame in Lake Worth, Florida.

Rowlandson was born in India in 1861 and studied art at Gloucester Art School, Westminster and Paris. He exhibited at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour between 1911 and 1918 from 22 Priory Road, Bedford Park, London. He contributed illustrations to The Illustrated London News and the English llustrated Magazine, his work being mostly military or equestrian subjects, and a number of hunting scenes. More

Emmanuel Dieudonné

GENEVA 1845 - 1889, SWISS SCHOOL OF NINETEENTH CENTURY

THE SLAVE MERCHANT

Oil on canvas, unframed 

42 x 61 cm; 16 1/2 by 24 in

This is a preparatory sketch for the large painting, signed lower left E. DIEUDONNE, kept at the National Federation of André Maginot, Paris. A pupil of Cabanel, Emmanuel Dieudonné exhibited at the Salon from 1876. He made ​​many Orientalists compositions.

Karl Wilhelm Gentz-

NEURUPPIN 1822 - 1890 BERLIN, ÉCOLE ALLEMANDE

NUBIAN HUNTERS

Signed lower right W. Gentz

​​Oil on canvas 

166 x 139 cm; 65 1/3 by 54 3/4 in

Karl Wilhelm Gentz ​​(1822 - 1890) was a German painter. The second child of Johann Christian Gentz. Initially enrolled at Berlin's Friedrich Wilhelm University, he decided at age 21 to study painting. He attended the prestigious Atelier Kloeber and studied in 1845 for nine months at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts. He entered the school Atelier Paul Delaroche, which was then under the direction of Charles Gleyre. In 1847 he traveled to Spain and Morocco Returning to Paris, he painted The Prodigal Son in the desert, a life-size figure. In 1850 he went to Marseille and Malta, then Egypt and the Sinai; on his way back he traveled over Asia Minor, the Greek archipelago, Constantinople and Vienna.

In 1852, while living temporarily in Berlin, his first paintings of  oriental life emerged: "Slave Market" and "Egyptian School".  Not satisfied, Gentz returned to Paris and joined the studio of Thomas Couture. There painted two religious images with life-size figures, Christ and Magdalene and Simon and Chris.


In 1858, again in Berlin, he created a long series of Oriental Paintings, mostly Egyptian, for the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. The oeuvre of the artist are very large; sometimes the figures are primarily, the character of the land and people are sharply defined. More

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Acknowledgement: Sothebeys