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Lot Essay
Inspired no doubt by Jean-Léon Gérôme, his teacher at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Frederick Arthur Bridgman made his first trip to North Africa in 1872. The following year, during the winter of 1873-1874, he went to Egypt, accompanied by a pupil of Bonnat's, Charles Sprague Pearce, whom Bridgman had met in Southern France the previous winter. They settled themselves in Shepherd's hotel in Cairo and busied themselves at work throughout the city. Although he did produce some sketches of Islamic monuments, Bridgman's interest lay chiefly, as it had in Algeria, in the depiction and recording of contemporary city life.
After Bridgman met an English couple at the opera and took them to his room to show them the sketches adorning his wall, it was suggested that the couple team up with the two artists and share the cost of a dahabeah for a trip up the Nile. So, for 'not much more than a guinea a day, he proceeded, in rather luxurious circumstances, at hours and miles up the primeval river, being absent three months and a half'. The journey took them as far as the second cataract and the temple of Abu Simbel. During this time, Bridgman executed over 300 sketches and studies on over 60 sheets which make up this unique and rare album, and which, together, comprise a visual diary of his trip, including his observations on the people, the landscape, the architecture and even the hieroglyphic art of the country. Bridgman was still relatively fresh to this exotic new world and this collection of sketches provides testament to his overwhelming but very intimate impressions of the colour, movement and vibrancy of an entire culture, past and present.
After Bridgman met an English couple at the opera and took them to his room to show them the sketches adorning his wall, it was suggested that the couple team up with the two artists and share the cost of a dahabeah for a trip up the Nile. So, for 'not much more than a guinea a day, he proceeded, in rather luxurious circumstances, at hours and miles up the primeval river, being absent three months and a half'. The journey took them as far as the second cataract and the temple of Abu Simbel. During this time, Bridgman executed over 300 sketches and studies on over 60 sheets which make up this unique and rare album, and which, together, comprise a visual diary of his trip, including his observations on the people, the landscape, the architecture and even the hieroglyphic art of the country. Bridgman was still relatively fresh to this exotic new world and this collection of sketches provides testament to his overwhelming but very intimate impressions of the colour, movement and vibrancy of an entire culture, past and present.