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Lot Essay
Interior scenes are rare in Edwin Lord Weeks' oeuvre on the whole, but not altogether uncommon for the artist's Moroccan period, which extended from the mid-1870s to 1880.
Painted in 1877, the present picture clearly demonstrates that Weeks' fascination with exotic pattern and colour dates from his earliest artistic endeavours; virtually half of the painting is a complex, chromatic feast. We see an image of a young Moroccan woman emerging from behind an elaborate curtain into a bright interior courtyard. Everywhere is pattern - the woman's clothing, the drapery, the carved and decorated wooden door lintel, the tiled floor and wainscot - relieved by a polished column and the cool plaster walls. The bright, diffuse light of the room contrasts with the deep shadow of the framed openings. All of these elements and treatments prefigure Weeks' later works, in India and Persia as well as in Morocco.
We are grateful to Dr. Ellen K. Morris for preparing this catalogue entry.
Dr. Morris will include the present work in her forthcoming Weeks catalogue raisonné.
Painted in 1877, the present picture clearly demonstrates that Weeks' fascination with exotic pattern and colour dates from his earliest artistic endeavours; virtually half of the painting is a complex, chromatic feast. We see an image of a young Moroccan woman emerging from behind an elaborate curtain into a bright interior courtyard. Everywhere is pattern - the woman's clothing, the drapery, the carved and decorated wooden door lintel, the tiled floor and wainscot - relieved by a polished column and the cool plaster walls. The bright, diffuse light of the room contrasts with the deep shadow of the framed openings. All of these elements and treatments prefigure Weeks' later works, in India and Persia as well as in Morocco.
We are grateful to Dr. Ellen K. Morris for preparing this catalogue entry.
Dr. Morris will include the present work in her forthcoming Weeks catalogue raisonné.