01 Paintings by the Orientalist Artists in the Nineteenth-Century, with footnotes, 19

Charles Wilda, 1854 - 1907, GERMAN

A SOUK IN CAIRO, c. 1887

Oil on panel

63 by 47cm., 25 by 18½in.

Private collection

Open air markets in Old Cairo are called a “souk” in Arabic. You’ll find these types of markets in all Middle Eastern countries.  The tradition of buying and selling, haggling and bargaining among the crowds has being going on for centuries already.

Charles Wilda (born December 20, 1854 in Vienna as Karl Wilda , † June 11, 1907 ibid) was an Austrian painter of Viennese Orientalism . Wilda studied as a pupil of the painter Leopold Carl Müller at the Vienna Academy . He belonged to the center of Austrian Oriental painting.

In his paintings, the daily life in Cairo, where he frequented, played the most important role. His paintings have titles such as "The Snake Charmer" or "The Storyteller". In 1892 he undertook an Egyptian journey with the same-age sculptor Arthur Strasser.

Since 1880s, he exhibited almost regularly at the Vienna Annual Exhibition , the Berlin International Art Exhibition , the Munich Annual Exhibition or the Dresden International Art Exhibition . At the Paris World Exposition in 1900 he was well represented with some of his works. 


The tomb of Charles Wilda at the Vienna Central Cemetery, designed by Hella Unger, 1909. More on Charles Wilda

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