Written by: William Richardot de Choisey Translated by: Sonja Smaldone Documentary Credits Union of Museums & Special Collections.
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ince the most ancient times the expansion of Muslim peoples in the Arabian Peninsula, at the dawn of Islam, has been prompting cultural interests in a wide range of areas. Whether representative or figurative Naive pictorial art, many works are nowadays either hung on the picture rails of the greatest National Museums or you may find them by
some particular characters who still breathe the great finesse of the peoples of happy Arabia. The legends about the big conquests at the beginning of Islam - whose duration extended over more than a century, from 634 to 730, covering areas from North Africa to the Iberian Peninsula - did not, however, tell us of a systematic Arabization or Islamization of local populations.
Sea Battle Niels Simonsen, 1844
Eugène Fromentin - Coll Priv
Gérôme - Dervishes
Niels Simonsen 1807-1885
Ranjit Sing Bahadur by Alfred de Dreux
Delacroix La Bataille de Taillebourg Photo Chateau de Versailles
It was only a mode of culture and life-style accompanied by its millennial traditions, in particular, by a marvellous companion: the fastest steed of the desert, that is, the purebred Arabian ‘Asil’ horse.
Delacroix Conversation RMNx
Within the breeding associations inherited from mainly oral ancient traditions, some models of actions do persist in order to keep the best bloodlines from the five mares of the Prophet, the ‘Kuhailan Ajouz’. Scholars of this culture understood that it was necessary to represent this ‘essence’ of rich life. Nevertheless, many characters who later experienced or knew the desert lands of the Middle East became victims of the beauty
Bridgeman - Frederick - Arthur - Algeria
of those vast landscapes that would lead everyone into a state of inebriation of the senses on the way up to the Rapture. Moreover, the existence and the meeting with indigenous peoples could not leave anyone indifferent as their spontaneity was surprising, it came from the heart of the man who must be considered a brother, wherever he came from. Since the 19th century the fashion of a certain exoticism has seized talented artists, mainly Painters, who have left us highly representative works of these countries. Therefore, it is necessary to present some paintings through this second part which, however, is not the last as the catalogue is huge.
Arabe achetant une bride Haggin MusĂŠum Stockolm
1879 Benjamin-Constant - Favorite of the Emir
Afred de Dtreux - Etalons tenus par un Nubien