Working Number | Name | Holding Museum | Date | Materials | Curator Justification |
SP 025 | Sorolla in Tetouan | Sorolla Museum | February 1919 | Cardboard; Gelatin DOP | In 1919, the Spanish Impressionist painter Joaquín Sorolla travelled to Tetouan in Morocco. Here, Sorolla’s family and friends appear with local people, including the “Moor Selam”. The artist’s daughter Helena wears local costume. On the family’s return, she set up a “Moorish” corner in their home.
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SP 028 | Invitation from Egyptian Sultan Fuad I to Joaquín Sorolla | Sorolla Museum | 05 November 1918 | Paper; ink | Morocco and Algeria offered artists inspiration, too. The Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863–1923) travelled and worked there extensively. His works became much sought after, as shown by this royal invitation to Cairo by the King of Egypt. Sadly, this journey did not materialise, but Sorolla did go to Morocco in 1919.
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TR2 031 | View of Istanbul | Pera Museum | Second half of the 19th century | Oil on canvas | The French artist Félix Ziem (1821–1911) was famous for his dreamy Eastern scenes and visions of the Orient evoking the atmosphere of The Arabian Nights. His works, like this one focusing on Constantinople, were popular among contemporary customers.
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TR2 032 | The Grand Bazaar | Pera Museum | Second half of the 19th century | Oil on canvas | Count Amadeo Preziosi (1816–82), a long-time resident of Constantinople, was famous for his watercolours and prints that eternalised the city in genre scenes and were attractive to both the local expatriate community and visiting tourists.
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TR2 033 | Caiques and Sailboats at the Bosporus | Pera Museum | Second half of the 19th century | Oil on canvas | It is likely that Félix Ziem completed this painting on his return to France, using sketches he had made in Constantinople. The atmosphere, with the city indicated with only a few mosque silhouettes in the background, is dreamy and evocative.
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TR2 034 | View of Istanbul | Pera Museum | Second half of the 19th century | Oil on canvas | The French artist Félix Ziem (1821–1911) was famous for his dreamy Eastern scenes and visions of the Orient evoking the atmosphere of The Arabian Nights. His works, like this one focusing on Constantinople, were popular among contemporary customers.
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TR2 035 | Portrait of a lady of the court playing the tambourine | Pera Museum | 1870–1875 | Oil on canvas | This painting is one of the four half-length portraits by the artist painted in 1874-1875 depicting young woman of the ottoman Court. Her dress has been emphasized by means of a neutral background. She is wearing a “dört etek” robe. On her head she wears a cap of blue fabric, decorated with small White flowers.
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DZ 107 | The Caliphs' tombs in Cairo | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1871 | Oil on wood | Artists were drawn to North Africa in particular because of its reputation for exceptional light, colour and exotic vistas. Many – like the French artist Eugène Fromentin (1820–76) – were fascinated by the ancient sites there, and depicted them in works that were designed not merely to show the “reality”, but also to evoke the “magical” atmosphere.
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DZ 095 | The Jewish wedding | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | Second half of the 19th century | Oil on canvas | The French Orientalist paint Alfred Dehodencq (1822–82) was the first foreign artist to live in Morocco long-term. Between 1855 and 1870, he specialised in Orientalist scenes depicting aspects of life in the North African country. Here, he captures a wedding in the Jewish community in Tangiers.
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IT2 011 | The Celebration of the Prophet Muhammad in Tangier | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) | 1879 | Oil on canvas | Due to the good relations between the young Moroccan Sultan Mulay Hasan I and Italy, many Italian artists visited the country. Among them was Stefano Ussi (1822–1901), who arriving in Morocco in 1875, became particularly well known. Based on countless sketches made during his visit, he later created impressive, large-scale compositions.
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DZ 096 | Souvenir of Algeria | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 19th cenutry (c. 1858) | Oil on canvas | The French artist Eugène Fromentin was one of the earliest artists to depict Algerian scenes. This evocative view of the ancient Roman aqueduct in the city of Cherchell was shown at the Paris Salon of 1859.
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DZ 106 | The Great Mosque of Algiers | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1870 | Oil on canvas | The Spanish painter Joseph Sintès (1829–1913) spent most his life in Algeria and specialised in painting its vistas and monuments. This image shows the Ottoman Great Mosque in Algiers, an important monument in Algerian history.
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DZ 103 | The Admiralty | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1865 | Oil on a wooden panel | This painting by Joseph Sintès shows the Ottoman Admiralty building, constructed under the auspices of the great Ottoman Admiral Khayr al-Din (Khaireddine). Sintès, who lived in Algeria for most of his life, specialised in painting scenes that would appeal to both the local elite and expatriate customers.
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DZ 104 | Algiers, site of the Lycée | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1865 | Aquarelle | This painting by Algerian resident Joseph Sintès shows one of the first French schools in Algeria, built on the site of a Roman columbarium. Scenes like these were popular with both the local elite and expatriate residents.
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DZ 120 | The Empress' boulevard | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | Late 19th century | Oil on a wooden panel | This painting by Joseph Sintès depicts the Boulevard de l’Impératrice, a street built by the French Architect Frédéric Chassériau as a symbol of European modernisation of Algiers. The Algerians, sitting on the ground in traditional costumes, seem to quietly reassert their culture regardless.
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IT2 008 | The Prayer in the Desert | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) | 1876 | Oil on canvas | Apart from realistic vistas, Orientalist artists were fascinated by the unfamiliar, colourful and bold characters they encountered during their travels. Here, the Italian artist Stefano Ussi captures the serenity of Muslim prayer, a scene based on drawings made while in Egypt.
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IT2 013 | In the Desert | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) | 1889 | Oil on canvas | The Italian painter Cesare Biseo (1844–1909) travelled to Constantinople, Egypt and Morocco. A respected artist of evocative Orientalist themes, he was invited to decorate the Egyptian Viceroy’s palace in Alexandria.
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IT2 009 | Arabian Fantasy | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) | 1911 | Oil on canvas | Although entitled Arabian Fantasy, this scene by the Italian artist Stefano Ussi is based on a real-life event – the “Lab-el-baroud” (Game of Gunpowder), played in the dust, and performed by Moroccan horsemen in honour of the Italian delegation with whom the painter was travelling at the time. In fact, the episode is masterfully recounted in Morocco: Its People and Places by Edmondo De Amicis.
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DZ 090 | Mountain people from Mostaganem | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1846 | Graphite with chalk | Théodore Chassériau travelled widely during his stay in Algeria in 1846. After exploring the country’s western region, he completed this study of a local mountain dweller.
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DZ 102 | Falcon chase | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | 1863 | Watercolour | French artist Eugène Fromentin’s work was also focused on Algeria. This sketch was a preparatory study for a large painting later shown at the Paris Salon of 1863. Artists often made use of drawings and sketches created during their travels to produce grand compositions when back home.
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RS 002 | Woman In Oriental Dress | The National Museum | mid-1880s | Oil on panel | Local women and their lives fascinated European painters. This painting was completed in the early 1880s by Serbian painter Pavle “Paja” Jovanović during one of his frequent trips and sojourns in the Balkans. The precision of the draughtsmanship and fresh colours ranks this work among his most successful from the period.
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DZ 064 | North African woman washing | Musée Public National des Antiquités | 1832 | | The French Arabist, philologist and artist Louis-Adrien Berbrugger (1801–69) arrived in Algeria in 1835. Unusually for the time, Berbrugger settled in Algeria and married a Muslim woman, and then empathetically studied the culture around him.
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DZ 105 | Woman taking an afternoon nap | Musée National des Beaux-Arts | c. 1870 | Aquarelle | European paintings of “Oriental” women in the harem were closer to the fantasies of Europeans than to the reality of life experienced by North African women. This is because virtually no European artist ever entered an “Oriental” harem.
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SP 037 | Interior of a Moorish Palace, Algiers | National Museum of Romanticism | 1844 | Paper; ink; steel engraving | “Oriental” women and their lives fascinated European painters. This scene, within a Moorish palace in Algiers, seems to depict the family’s private quarters or even the harem, both areas to which most outsiders never gained access. Nevertheless, engravings like this one were often used by Orientalist artists as the basis for their paintings.
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IT2 006 | The Virgin at the Nile | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM) | 1865 | Oil on canvas | The Italian painter Federico Faruffini (1831–69) was among the artists who tried to exploit the commercial potential of Orientalism with fantastic and alluring scenes, pandering to contemporary European tastes, without having had any direct experience of the East.
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