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拍品专文
This exquisite scene of an Eastern interior was probably executed in the last period of Ernst's pictorial career. Around 1900 he painted several pictures of Hindu temples, although he never travelled to India. As is typical of his pictorial style, Ernst created a very original capriccio of different styles within The Flower Maidens, harmoniously mixing the diverse sources of his inspiration: Indian carved woods and Turkish tiles, light Indian textiles and colourful Persian silks.
From an iconographical point of view, the painting is particularly important in the context of Ernst's corpus. The painter is not interested in depicting the woman or the man alone, secluded in their secret apartments- the man in the selamlik, the woman in the haremlik, the two distinct parts of the Oriental household. On the contrary, the woman is entering the domestic space, coming from a brightly sunlit countryside, and the man is actively involved with the women in handling the rose petals and buds.
The individually painted rose petals immediately recall Alma-Tadema's much celebrated masterpiece of 1888 titled The Roses of Heliogabalus (sold Christie's, London, 11 June 1993, lot 121). In the present work Ernst has elevated an Orientalist subject by visually relating it to a well known Neoclassical work, which were regarded as the highest and the purest form of art, as they took their inspiration from the Imperial Rome and the Golden Age of Greece. Furthermore, the depicted labor in the present composition is not a vocation for these figures but rather a past time activity, as the objects surrounding them, the fabrics they are wearing, the mosaic tiles covering the ground and the carved pilars all attest to a well to do household. Although Ernst has produced a number of versions of this subject the present work exhibits the finest attention to detail and an impressive size.
From an iconographical point of view, the painting is particularly important in the context of Ernst's corpus. The painter is not interested in depicting the woman or the man alone, secluded in their secret apartments- the man in the selamlik, the woman in the haremlik, the two distinct parts of the Oriental household. On the contrary, the woman is entering the domestic space, coming from a brightly sunlit countryside, and the man is actively involved with the women in handling the rose petals and buds.
The individually painted rose petals immediately recall Alma-Tadema's much celebrated masterpiece of 1888 titled The Roses of Heliogabalus (sold Christie's, London, 11 June 1993, lot 121). In the present work Ernst has elevated an Orientalist subject by visually relating it to a well known Neoclassical work, which were regarded as the highest and the purest form of art, as they took their inspiration from the Imperial Rome and the Golden Age of Greece. Furthermore, the depicted labor in the present composition is not a vocation for these figures but rather a past time activity, as the objects surrounding them, the fabrics they are wearing, the mosaic tiles covering the ground and the carved pilars all attest to a well to do household. Although Ernst has produced a number of versions of this subject the present work exhibits the finest attention to detail and an impressive size.