O Incerto Amanhã 1967 - Hurry Sundown

O Incerto Amanhã 1967 - Hurry Sundown

Estados Unidos - 146 minutos

Poster do filme - Lobby Card

 

O Incerto Amanhã 1967 - Hurry Sundown

 

O Incerto Amanhã 1967 - Hurry Sundown

Estados Unidos - 146 minutos

Poster do filme

Vista Parcial da Cidade de Ilhéus, Bahia, Brasil

 

Vista Parcial da Cidade de Ilhéus, Bahia, Brasil

Ilhéus - BA

Foto Francino

Fotografia - Cartão Postal

O Marceneiro (The Woodworker) - Ludwig Deutsch

O Marceneiro (The Woodworker) - Ludwig Deutsch
Coleção privada
Óleo sobre madeira - 40x28 - 1884


The present lot is an important subgenre within Deutsch's art – that of the connoisseur or Arab artisan, workman, or shopkeeper admiring an array of local handicrafts. Deutsch acquired hundreds of decorative objets when abroad, and these souvenirs of travel furnished both his Paris studio at 11 rue Navarin and the Orientalist pictures he produced until his death in 1935. It is also known that the artist frequented the photography studio of G. Lékégian in Cairo. Deutsch's interest in these items, and the element of personalisation, makes it hard not to imagine that the figure in the present lot is a surrogate for the artist himself, contemplating the next treasure to add to his carefully curated collection.
The man may be identified as a woodworker, due to the particular type of chisel he holds, and the mother-of-pearl wooden inlaid drawer. His expertise in other crafts (and particularly metalwork) is suggested by the inclusion of a pair of bellows on the wall inside his niche-like shop. Interestingly, the interior of the wooden drawer is adorned with floral motifs and red paint, more typical of Turkish furniture and decorative objects than Egyptian.
The red script to the right of this figure and on the door jamb or frame is inscribed with Arabic texts. There is, at top, the number "81"; the letters at the bottom read "rqm" (raqem) meaning "number". This may refer to the government designation of local Cairene houses and businesses, made for tax or ownership purposes. The long diagonal red line between these two inscriptions might be the word "Masr", meaning "Egypt", although this would be an odd place and context for it.
The craftsman's shop or workspace itself occupies a niche within this inscribed stone façade, in typical Cairene market street fashion. The aquamarine colouring of the ablaq courses is unusual, however – this striped stonework, typical of the Mamluk era, was usually black and white, red and white, or a combination of these three colours.
Against the wall on the left are architectural remnants and part of a mashrabiyyah screen. This latter type of woodwork was created without the use of nails or glue; turned wood pieces are fitted together like pieces of a puzzle, to create a beautiful and intricately patterned surface that was at once open and closed. Mashrabiyyah windows were used in the harem in particular for this very reason, as they allowed the women within to see out, while simultaneously protecting them from others' view.
The detritus on the ground might include an aged mango pip in the foreground on the right, and its inclusion suggests Deutsch's love of incidental detail. Contemporary artists such as the British Orientalist John Frederick Lewis also delighted in such details – Lewis's signature style was an assortment of orange or tangerine peels, however, scattered across the dirt or stone floors that he painted.

Chamando os Fiéis (Calling the Faithful) - Ludwig Deutsch

 

Chamando os Fiéis (Calling the Faithful) - Ludwig Deutsch
Coleção privada
Óleo sobre painel - 49x31 - 1893


In 1893, the Société des Peintres Orientalistes Français was created in Paris to reinvigorate a genre that had begun to stale after half a century of dominating the European art world. Many of the giants of Orientalism had passed away or become interested in subjects beyond the Middle East, while the most influential artist in the field, Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904), was now focusing almost exclusively on sculpture, often with classical themes. There were some Orientalist painters, however, who were still captivated by the region, and whose works proved that Orientalism had something left to give. Ludwig Deutsch was one of them, and his pictures from the 1890s were among the finest of his career, with themes that would become the most recognisable and coveted in Orientalist art. His meticulously painted images of Arab men at prayer or, as here, silhouetted or placed just in front of the doorway of an Egyptian religious school or mosque, were particularly successful, finding ready buyers in Paris, London, New York, and Cairo - markets that continue to embrace Deutsch's works today.
In the present painting, completed just one year after winning a gold medal at the 1892 Paris Salon, Deutsch demonstrates the power of the art he created during these pivotal years. Specific yet iconic, topical yet timeless, the subject and site of Calling the Faithful reappear often in Deutsch's oeuvre, like stills from a sweeping cinematic series. The setting, in fact, was a favourite of the artist, and was likely visited in person during one of his many trips abroad (see fig 1). The distinctive bronze medallions adorning the wooden doors of the late 14th century Fatimid Mosque of al-Barquq, located in Cairo's Al-Moez Street, had been appreciated by scores of other artists as well, notably Pascal Xavier Coste (1787-1879) and Owen Jones (1809-1874). Jones reproduced similar medallions, decorative details, and architectural elements in his epic The Grammar of Ornament, published in London in 1856 and frequently used by Deutsch as an aide memoire for his Orientalist compositions. Deutsch's extensive collection of Orientalist photographs served much the same purpose. The jewel-like tones and miniaturists' technique, however, as well as the creative reconfiguration of historically accurate parts, were Deutsch's own, unique contribution to the field.
The male figure in the composition, clad in a red striped qumbaz and a white turban, holds his index finger to his left ear. This gesture – performed during the call of Adhan, or invitation to pray - allowed him to project his voice with the appropriate control, modulation, and force, while also protecting his hearing. His outer robes and scarf feature metallic gold threads, suggesting that they may have been woven in the nearby village of Kerdassa, famous for its luxurious striped textiles. Such ethnographic touches were typical of Deutsch, and contributed to the astonishing realism of his art. Ironically, given this level of precision and clarity, the details of Deutsch's own life remain obscure, with only the most basic biographical information being known. It is left to his pictures to reveal who he encountered during his wide-ranging travels, what intrigued him about Egypt specifically, how he chose to paint it, and why.

Retrato de um Homem de Perfil (Portrait of a Man in Profile) - Leopold Carl Müller

 

Retrato de um Homem de Perfil (Portrait of a Man in Profile) - Leopold Carl Müller

Coleção privada

Óleo sobre painel - 26x17