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Lot Essay
Of the seventy or so American painters who visited the Orient after the Civil War (1861-1865) Edwin Lord Weeks (Lot 84) and Frederick Arthur Bridgman stand out for the volume of their work and the number of trips they made. Bridgman particularly distinguished himself in the depiction of daily life in Algeria which he first visited in 1872.
His style and choice of subject matter was no doubt influnced by those painters he became aquainted 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 became well acquainted with other American painters, notably the Philadelphian Robert Wylie whose well modeled peasant scenes strongly influnced 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 four years there. 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 layed mainly in contemporary life of Cairo and Algiers. 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 which adorned their homes. Their brilliance made them particularily popular with American collectors, and a New York show of over three hundred works by Bridgman at the American Art Gallery in 1881 marked the peak of his popularity.
His style and choice of subject matter was no doubt influnced by those painters he became aquainted 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 became well acquainted with other American painters, notably the Philadelphian Robert Wylie whose well modeled peasant scenes strongly influnced 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 four years there. 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 layed mainly in contemporary life of Cairo and Algiers. 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 which adorned their homes. Their brilliance made them particularily popular with American collectors, and a New York show of over three hundred works by Bridgman at the American Art Gallery in 1881 marked the peak of his popularity.