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Lot Essay
Of the seventy or so American painters who visited the Orient after the Civil War (1861-65), Edwin Lord Weeks and Frederick Arthur Bridgman stand out for the quality and volume of their work and the number of trips they made. Bridgman particularly distinguished himself in the depiction of daily life in North Africa, which he first visited in 1872. The rug merchant is a very fine and intimate example of the highly finished works the artist produced in his best period.
His style and choice of subject matter was no doubt influenced by those painters he became acquainted with while in Paris. Bridgman had arrived in France in the Summer of 1866 and had quickly made his way to Pont-Aven in Brittany where he met other American painters, notably the Philadelphian Robert Wylie, whose well modelled peasant scenes strongly influenced his style. Indeed until his first trip to North Africa in the 1870s, Bridgman had planned to return to America as a painter of genre scenes set in the American countryside. However, in the Autumn of 1866, Bridgman joined the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme where he was to spend the next four years. Gérôme's trips to North Africa and Egypt in the 1850s must have encouraged Bridgman to make a trip of his own.
Spending the winter of 1872-73 in Algiers, Bridgman began to explore those scenes of contemporary Oriental life for which he became renowned. Bridgman spent the following winter in Egypt where he busied himself with the depiction of the streets of Cairo. He painted a few of the major Islamic monuments but his interest lay mainly in depicting contemporary life. True to the Gérôme school of painting, Bridgman painted his Oriental sitters with great attention to detail both in their costumes and in the textiles that adorned their homes. The rug merchant exemplifies this approach to painting.
His style and choice of subject matter was no doubt influenced by those painters he became acquainted with while in Paris. Bridgman had arrived in France in the Summer of 1866 and had quickly made his way to Pont-Aven in Brittany where he met other American painters, notably the Philadelphian Robert Wylie, whose well modelled peasant scenes strongly influenced his style. Indeed until his first trip to North Africa in the 1870s, Bridgman had planned to return to America as a painter of genre scenes set in the American countryside. However, in the Autumn of 1866, Bridgman joined the atelier of Jean-Léon Gérôme where he was to spend the next four years. Gérôme's trips to North Africa and Egypt in the 1850s must have encouraged Bridgman to make a trip of his own.
Spending the winter of 1872-73 in Algiers, Bridgman began to explore those scenes of contemporary Oriental life for which he became renowned. Bridgman spent the following winter in Egypt where he busied himself with the depiction of the streets of Cairo. He painted a few of the major Islamic monuments but his interest lay mainly in depicting contemporary life. True to the Gérôme school of painting, Bridgman painted his Oriental sitters with great attention to detail both in their costumes and in the textiles that adorned their homes. The rug merchant exemplifies this approach to painting.