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IG_107: Almée, an Egyptian Dancer
(FIN_Helsinki_FinnishNationalGallery_IG_107)

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Title

Almée, an Egyptian Dancer

Type of Object
Dimensions
45 x 37.5 cm
Artist / Producer
Dating
1883
Location
Inventory Number
A II 1396
Research Project
Author and Date of Entry
Sarah Tabbal 2024

Iconography

Description

This oil painting by the Finnish painter Gunnar Berndtson (1854–1895) shows a performance by a female dancer in an interior in Egypt. The woman, whose upper body is naked, dances in the foreground before a male audience. Two men in European costume linger in a window recess and watch. The female protagonist is accompanied by a female drummer on the right-hand side of the painting.
A pointed horseshoe arch with blue and white stonework forms the opening to the window recess, in which two rows of colourful stucco and glass windows can be seen above a lower section of windows made of transparent glass. The lower row consists of three windows with the motif of a stylized vase of flowers, and in the top row there are octagonal windows with a geometric motif, two complete and two half-lunettes (Heikka, 2017, p. 3). Despite the curtains that partially cover the transparent glass, there is a view of a landscape with palm trees outside.

Iconclass Code
41A33 · window
41A6711 · flowers in a vase
48A981 · ornament ~ geometric motifs
48C1412 · interior ~ representation of a building
Iconclass Keywords

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

Oil on wood.

History

Research

Gunnar Berndtson was visiting Cairo when he executed this painting between 1882 and 1883 (Heikka, 2017, p. 1). Elina Heikka compared the windows in Berndtson’s Almée with those that can be seen in a photograph taken by Émile Béchard (1844–1905) showing Baron Delort de Gléon's residence in Cairo and found that the windows were similar (Heikka, 2017, p. 3). Delort de Gléon (1843–1899) graduated as a mining engineer in Paris in 1864 and had lived in Cairo for about twenty years (Heikka, 2017, p. 4). His palace had been designed by the French architect Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906), who lived in Cairo between 1871 and 1888 (Heikka, 2017, p. 3, and Crosnier Leconte, & Volait, 1998).

Dating
1883

Bibliography and Sources

Literature

Crosnier Leconte, M.-L., and Volait, M. (eds.). (1998). L’Egypte d’un architecte: Ambroise Baudry, 1838–1906. Somogy Editions d’art.

Heikka, E. (2017). Layers of Fantasy – Gunnar Berndtson’s Almée. In FNG Research Issue No. 5.

Image Information

Name of Image
FIN_Helsinki_FinnishNationalGallery_IG_107
Credits
Finnish National Gallery / Hannu Aaltonen

Citation suggestion

Tabbal, S. (2024). Almée, an Egyptian Dancer. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://vitrosearch.ch/objects/2712951.

Record Information

Reference Number
IG_107