Orientalist Market Square Scene — Late 19th-C. French School Style View Watchlist >
Seller Accepts Credit Cards
Payment and pickup instructions will be available on your invoice (under "My Account") at the conclusion of this auction.
Lot # F748
System ID # 29427546
Start Date
End Date
0 Watching
Orientalist Market Square Scene — Late 19th-C. French School Style
A bustling North African or Levantine square fills the picture surface: French colonial-era soldiers in blue uniforms press through a crowd of local merchants and pedestrians beneath market awnings, while a tethered horse stands before a monumental arched gateway at right. The architecture — ablaq alternating stonework, Moorish horseshoe arches, mashrabiya balconies, and a striped minaret column — places the setting firmly in Ottoman-era North Africa, most likely Algeria or Tunisia, consistent with the French Orientalist tradition of the 1870s–1900s. A lone plane tree anchors the left edge; a hazy blue sky opens above the rooflines. The loaded, broken brushwork and warm ochre-and-cool-blue palette are rendered in faithful imitation of artists working in the tradition of Eugène Fromentin, Félix Ziem, and their contemporaries — the textured print surface reproducing the impasto character of that school with unusual conviction at this intimate scale.
The insert is a textured print on board, unmarked, presented without signature or maker attribution. It is housed in a quality period gilt frame — wood and composition plaster construction with a continuous carved acanthus-and-foliate scroll relief, red bole underpaint showing through worn gilding at the high points, and a peach fabric liner. Frames of this profile and weight were standard exhibition presentation in late 19th-century France and America, and this example's patina and wear pattern are consistent with genuine age. The frame is a meaningful component of the lot in its own right. No glass.
CONDITION
Good overall. Frame shows age-appropriate gilding wear with chipping and touch-up repairs at the corners; red bole underpaint exposed at high points throughout is consistent with genuine age. Peach fabric liner is clean and intact. Insert surface is intact with no lifting or visible damage noted.
DIMENSIONS / SPECIFICATIONS
- Overall (framed): 17 1/4" H × 20 1/4" W × 2" D
- Visible image: 9 1/2" H × 12 1/2" W
- Frame construction: Wood and composition plaster, gilt finish with red bole underpaint
- Liner: Peach fabric
- Insert: Textured print on board, unmarked — no signature or attribution confirmed
- No glass
