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拍品專文
'My impressions of North Africa can never be dispelled...no sooner had I set foot on land than I began with joy to sniff the odours so peculiar to Oriental towns - perfumes of musk, tobacco, orange blossom and coffee - a subtle combination of which...hovers about the shops and bazaars' (Bridgman quoted by C. Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, p. 27).
Bridgman's lifelong fascination with North Africa led him to explore an area hidden from most Western artists, the domestic life of women. His superbly observed pictures on this subject hint at an idyllic, luxurious world of rich interiors and sun-dappled courtyards, so far removed from the bustle of the city. The Magazine of Art, in 1884, encouraged artists to visit Algiers in order to experience its unspoilt Orientalism and thus described this private, hidden world; 'In the centre a fountain sends up a thin spray of water, and at the foot of each twisted column that supports the slender white horseshoe arches, which rise airily from the four sides of the court, a few vines and passion flowers, or the Bougainvillea, flushing into tender mauve at its extremities, clamber to the floor above; while orange, lime, or pomegranate trees cast refreshing shadows...ever flashing and changing beneath the soft light thrown from the sunny walls above' ('Algiers', Magazine of Art, vol. 7, London, Paris and New York, 1884, p. 178).
Bridgman's lifelong fascination with North Africa led him to explore an area hidden from most Western artists, the domestic life of women. His superbly observed pictures on this subject hint at an idyllic, luxurious world of rich interiors and sun-dappled courtyards, so far removed from the bustle of the city. The Magazine of Art, in 1884, encouraged artists to visit Algiers in order to experience its unspoilt Orientalism and thus described this private, hidden world; 'In the centre a fountain sends up a thin spray of water, and at the foot of each twisted column that supports the slender white horseshoe arches, which rise airily from the four sides of the court, a few vines and passion flowers, or the Bougainvillea, flushing into tender mauve at its extremities, clamber to the floor above; while orange, lime, or pomegranate trees cast refreshing shadows...ever flashing and changing beneath the soft light thrown from the sunny walls above' ('Algiers', Magazine of Art, vol. 7, London, Paris and New York, 1884, p. 178).