Lot 1088 | The Caravan

GIRARDET, EUGÈNE
Paris 1853 - 1907

Title: The Caravan.
Technique: Oil on Canvas.
Mounting: Relined.
Measurement: 70 x 121cm.
Notation: Signed bottom right: Eugène Girardet.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

From the late 17th century onwards, the salons, i.e. art exhibitions for an educated, wealthy and mostly bourgeois audience, became established in France. This painting represented at the salons then had a decisive influence on artistic taste, mainly in the 19th century. The subjects shown in the paintings were wide-ranging, from religious, allegorical and historical backgrounds to exotic depictions from foreign worlds that had just been discovered. This branch, which became particularly pronounced in France as a result of its expansion into North Africa, is very symbolically described today by the keyword Orientalism.
For the discovery of foreign lands, the curious look at other Arabic cultures and the fascination with exotic landscapes formed the style for an art movement of its own. Eugène Girardet is an important representative of French Orientalism. Although he lived and worked in the centre of Paris, he undertook numerous journeys to the Arab cultural area. From there he brought back his impressions - here the scene of a wandering Bedouin family on the edge of the desert.
To the public in France and also in the German academic art exhibitions, he thus told of unknown everyday life with his lively depictions. In this way, he responded to the longing for novelty that was bubbling up in a society in which hardly anyone dared to travel far or could even afford to do so.