Ernst, Rudolf (1854-1932) - 1886 The Arab Sage (Christie's London, 2007)
Oil on panel; 61 x 50.2 cm.
Rudolf Ernst, born in Vienna in 1854, was the son of the architectural painter Leopold Ernst. After attending the Vienna Academy in 1869 and exhibiting in Munich he traveled to Italy in 1874. As early as 1876 Ernst decided to settle in Paris where he would exhibit at the Salon for the following six decades. Like his close friend Ludwig Deutsch, who also took French nationality, Ernst belongs to the second generation of Orientalist painters. The first generation, such as Delacroix, Vernet, Collin and Chassèriau were inspired by political events such as the liberation of Greece and Napoleon's conquest of Algiers. Artists from the second half of the century such as Gérôme, Bauernfeind, Deutsch and Ernst were more interested in depicting scenes from the daily life of the East such as Bedouins gathering in sun bathed deserts, Bashi-Bazouks resting, Nubians guarding palaces or odalisques smoking narghiles in opulent harems.
Ernst's first taste of the East was sparked by journeys to Moorish Spain, Morocco and Tunis during the 1880s followed by a visit to Constantinople and Egypt in 1890. On these travels he became very interested in Eastern styles of decoration, in particular tile-making, and by 1900 he left Paris to live in Fontenay-aux-Roses, where he decorated his home in an Ottoman style and lived among the oriental objects which figured so largely in his paintings. He even painted wearing the tasseled cap known as a tarboosh.
Ernst, Rudolf (1854-1932) - 1886 The Arab Sage (Christie's London, 2007)
Oil on panel; 61 x 50.2 cm.
Rudolf Ernst, born in Vienna in 1854, was the son of the architectural painter Leopold Ernst. After attending the Vienna Academy in 1869 and exhibiting in Munich he traveled to Italy in 1874. As early as 1876 Ernst decided to settle in Paris where he would exhibit at the Salon for the following six decades. Like his close friend Ludwig Deutsch, who also took French nationality, Ernst belongs to the second generation of Orientalist painters. The first generation, such as Delacroix, Vernet, Collin and Chassèriau were inspired by political events such as the liberation of Greece and Napoleon's conquest of Algiers. Artists from the second half of the century such as Gérôme, Bauernfeind, Deutsch and Ernst were more interested in depicting scenes from the daily life of the East such as Bedouins gathering in sun bathed deserts, Bashi-Bazouks resting, Nubians guarding palaces or odalisques smoking narghiles in opulent harems.
Ernst's first taste of the East was sparked by journeys to Moorish Spain, Morocco and Tunis during the 1880s followed by a visit to Constantinople and Egypt in 1890. On these travels he became very interested in Eastern styles of decoration, in particular tile-making, and by 1900 he left Paris to live in Fontenay-aux-Roses, where he decorated his home in an Ottoman style and lived among the oriental objects which figured so largely in his paintings. He even painted wearing the tasseled cap known as a tarboosh.