1916, Edvard Munch, Abdul Karim with a Green Scarf -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: Sultan Abdul Karim met Munch while performing with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, which specialized in ethnographic displays, during its 1916 Oslo tour. Munch offered Karim work as a "servant, driver and studio model" and featured him in seven paintings. While at least one painting portrayed Karim in a racially stereotyped role as "Cleopatra's slave," several portraits, including this one, use broad flat blocks of color to depict him at three-quarters length in everyday attire enlivened by a bold, striped green scarf. Munch titled the painting with reference to this striking accessory, omitting the sitter's name. In recent years the title was revised to recognize the work as an individualized portrait.
1916, Edvard Munch, Abdul Karim with a Green Scarf -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: Sultan Abdul Karim met Munch while performing with the Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus, which specialized in ethnographic displays, during its 1916 Oslo tour. Munch offered Karim work as a "servant, driver and studio model" and featured him in seven paintings. While at least one painting portrayed Karim in a racially stereotyped role as "Cleopatra's slave," several portraits, including this one, use broad flat blocks of color to depict him at three-quarters length in everyday attire enlivened by a bold, striped green scarf. Munch titled the painting with reference to this striking accessory, omitting the sitter's name. In recent years the title was revised to recognize the work as an individualized portrait.