Un poète; Les Coptes dans la Haute Egypte

Details

Henrietta Browne (Mme Jules de Saux, French, 1829-1901)
Un poète; Les Coptes dans la Haute Egypte
signed and dated 'Htte Browne. 1874.' (lower left)
oil on canvas
24½ x 28½ in. (62.2 x 72.4 cm.)
Painted in 1874

Provenance

Mr. Botescow; his sale, Christie's, London, 2 May 1891.
Arthur Tooth & Sons, London.

Literature

L'Art Revue Hebdomadaire, Paris.
R. Lewis, Gendering Orientalism, Race, Femininity and Representation, London, 1996, pp. 176-77 (illustrated pl. 39).

Exhibited

Paris, Salon, 1874.
Paris, Exposition Universelle, 1878.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Sale room notice

Not lined. There is a small hole in the canvas (approx: 0.5 cm) on the wall just above the right hand figure (visible in the illustration).
Examined under ultra violet light: difficult to read due to old and uneven reflective varnish.
Colour illustration: the colours in the original are a little warmer and brighter than the illustration suggests.

Lot Essay

As observed by Reina Lewis, the scribes potrayed in the present work differ from the usual orientalist stereotype. Here the figures are represented 'in the midst of their trade surrounded by books and papers, sitting upright on chairs, not cross-legged on the floor. Their position and posture flout conventions of representation and suggest dignity and self-possession.' (quoted in R. Lewis, Gendering Orientalism, London, 1996, p. 177).

The present work was exhibited at the Salon of 1874, and at the prestigious 1878 Exposition Universelle in Paris.

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