THE LURE OF THE ORIENT!!!
Many important artists of the 19th and 20th centuries looked for inspiration and different subject matter in their art by visiting and working in countries like Egypt, Turkey, Greece and North Africa. It was a sort of fashion but also a necessity for artists looking for new horizons, new themes and subjects and above all new, bright uncontrolled, pure colours.
The bright sun shine of the Orient from Greece to Turkey, from Middle East to Egypt and the rest of North Africa offered artists such as Delacroix, Gerome, Seddon, Lewis, Bauerfriend, Deutsche, Allen, Ralli and many more the opportunity to bring to Europe new subject matter, new ideas and a live, contemporary kind of art the collectors of then wanted and pursued.
Times have changed and the Orient is a wealthy area today and this art of the bygone era is as much contemporary and sought after as ever by the people they depict and immortalise. We actually feel and forecast that art of the Orient will take a huge step forward due to oil prices and wealth accumulated in the countries of the Orient.
We celebrate one of our paintings, actually the only Orientalist work in our collection of The Slave Market of Constantinople. This is a magnificent painting of the 1850s that was painted by a Greek of Constantinople, the lady Euterpe Ionides, the wife of the collector and philanthropist Alexander Ionides.
Painted circa 1850 in original condition and in authentic Empire frame, this kind of art rarely appears on pages like ours for comments or sale. We are a Freedom site and this work speaks about Slavery and Freedom simultaneously and it is narrated by a woman of those days who lived in Constantinople and experienced the events. Magnificent work and historical in many ways.
Peter Constant
