LONDON.- In response to the increasing demand for works from the Orientalist genre, Sotheby’s is staging an unprecedented three sales of Orientalist Art this autumn. The first of these sales took place in New York on October 23 and saw strong prices achieved for among others, Leopold Carl Muller’s An Almée’s Admirers (Egyptische Tänzerin) (realised $1.6 million) and Jean-Leon Gerome’s Le Barde Noir (which sold for $1.1 million). The second of the Orientalist sales this autumn is scheduled for October 29 in Paris. The final offering will then take place at the company’s New Bond Street saleroom in London on Wednesday, November 12 and this will follow a number of successful dedicated London sales in this field: in London in May this year Osman Hamdy Bey’s monumental masterpiece, A Lady of Constantinople, sold for £3.3 million – an auction record for a Turkish painting – while in May last year, Gustav Bauernfeind’s The Wailing Wall, Jerusalem sold for £3 million.

The forthcoming sale will offer some 63 premium-quality works by an impressive cross-section of European and American artists – all of whom were inspired by the khans, souks and bazaars of North Africa and the Middle East – and the sale is expected to realise in excess of £3 million.

Ali Can Ertug, Senior Vice President, Strategic Business Development, Middle East at Sotheby’s, states: “The market for Orientalist art has been quietly making waves in the recent years and months and it is one of the faster growing areas of the international art market. With sales in London, New York and Paris this autumn, it is set to be the most exciting auction season yet for Orientalist Art at Sotheby’s.”

Spearheading the London sale will be Rudolph Ernst’s (1854-1932) On the Terrace, Tangiers, which is a masterful study of light, colour and closely observed detail. The painting (illustrated on the front page), which has all of the hallmarks of Ernst’s finest works, portrays two girls sitting in a peaceful shaded loggia spinning wool, backlit by the bright sun outside. It is a tour de force of textures and surfaces. Austrian-born Ernst turned to Orientalist subjects in 1885, basing them on observations he made and the numerous sketches, photographs, and souvenirs he accumulated during his earlier travels to Spain, Morocco, Turkey, and Egypt. On the Terrace, Tangiers is estimated to fetch £400,000-600,000. Other notable works on offer by Ernst are The Guard of the Harem and The Visit, which are both not only the product of Ernst’s assiduous research but also of his poetic licence, as well as a rare watercolour entitled, The Caliph and his Favourite. The Guard of the Harem and The Visit are estimated at £180,000-250,000 and £150,000-200,000 respectively while The Caliph and his Favourite is expected to fetch £100,000-150,000.

Further highlights will be two works by Arthur von Ferraris (1856-1936): The Coffee House, Cairo, which dates from 1888 and is estimated at £250,000-350,000 and A Captive Audience Cairo, which is dated 1891 and is estimated at £200,000-300,000. The Cairo coffee shop scene sees the Hungarian-born Ferraris demonstrate his skill as both an architectural draughtsman and an acute observer of Egyptian society, from the iznik tiles and latticed woodwork shop front, to the hookah, every detail is painstakingly observed and minutely rendered. The painting has been in a private family collection since the 1950s and has exemplary provenance.

The American artist, Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847-1928), is another leading name of the Orientalist field and he will be represented in the sale by some four works, the most valuable of which is An Afternoon’s Amusement, which is estimated at £150,000-200,000. The tranquil scene of domestic harmony sees Bridgman capturing the pleasure of passing an afternoon on the terrace of a north African home, conversing and playing board games. Typically for him, the composition is devoid of a clear narrative, and it is left up to the viewer to interpret the interaction between individual figures. Bridgman was first and foremost interested in evoking a sensual experience in his work, through the almost palpable contrast between the hot sun and the cool shade of the foreground, as well as the luxuriant colours and textures set against the carefully observed domestic architecture. A second work by Bridgman is Reflections, which is expected to bring £100,000-150,000. This painting, which was exhibited at London’s Royal Academy in 1910, portrays a colourfully dressed young woman gazing at her reflection in a crystalline pool in a verdant courtyard similar to the Alhambra in Spain. Reflections is an early example of Bridgman’s Orientalist works; he was first introduced to the Oriental taste in 1872 after he moved from Paris to the Pyrenees and came into contact with the bright Mediterranean light and Moorish heritage of Spain.

Two rare works by the Belgian artist Jean-Baptiste Huysmans (1826-1906) will be presented and these are entitled Evening Prayer, Cairo and After the Dance. Huysman’s paintings show a deep respect for some of the Middle East’s most distinctive cultural traditions; Evening Prayer captures the daily sequence of five prayers and the Muslim ritual is shown as a healthy, communal expression of shared culture. The artist’s interest in Islamic culture was first instigated by his tour of the Middle East in 1856. In Turkey, Syria, Algeria and Egypt, he had ample opportunity to study and observe Islamic architecture and prayer at first hand. Evening Prayer, Cairo is estimated at £200,000-300,000. The artist’s After the Dance is estimated at £80,000-120,000.

An impressive array of Turkish ‘themed’ works will be spearheaded by two paintings by the Italian artist, Fausto Zonaro (1854-1929), and both are estimated at £40,000-60,000. The first is entitled Nisantasi, Constantinople while the second is On the Shore of the Bosphorus. Zonaro was one of the last of the illustrious group of painters to the Turkish court which included Titian, Rubens and David and he was an artist who excelled at seascapes. Masts and minarets, smoke and mist, sails and clouds, light and water blend into some of the most evocative of his representations of Istanbul. Zonaro made a major contribution to the development of western style art in Turkey.