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IG_140: Languorous Oriental lady with a rose
(MISC_IG_Ernst_IG_140)

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Title

Languorous Oriental Lady with a Rose

Type of Object
Dimensions
61 x 49 cm
Artist / Producer
Dating
c. 1890
Location
Research Project
Author and Date of Entry
Sarah Tabbal 2024

Iconography

Description

This oil painting by Rudolf Ernst (1854–1932) shows a genre scene with a woman lying in an interior on a divan and holding a flower in her left hand. A stucco and glass window can be seen in the background. The rectangular window is pointed at the top and shows a large transparent area in the centre with a wavy circular ornament and small rhombus-like pieces of green glass. This area is surrounded by a frame with an inner ribbon made of pieces of red glass and a wider outer part with stylized red blossoms.

Iconclass Code
41A33 · window
48C1412 · interior ~ representation of a building
Iconclass Keywords

Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

Technique

Oil on panel.

History

Research

Rudolf Ernst also depicted stucco and glass windows in other Orientalist paintings (see for example IG_137, IG_141, and IG_153). For his painting Languorous Oriental Lady with a Rose, Ernst may have been inspired by contemporary photographs: by comparing the interior in Ernst’s painting with a contemporary photograph by Abdullah Frères (c.1880, Intérieur du Kiosque de Bagdad, which shows furnishings and wall decoration, 20.9 × 26.9 cm, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, 1998.282.2), parallels can be seen in the representation of the interior, such as the divan in the niche, the Iznik tiles decorated with stylized floral elements, and the Arabic inscriptions, as well as the stucco and glass windows. While the photograph taken by Abdullah Frères, which captures the so-called Baghdad Kiosk (located in the fourth court of Topkapı Sarayı), shows three stucco and glass windows in a tall portrait format, Ernst reduced the number of windows in his painting to one and rendered it more square in shape. Not only the form, but also the ornamentation of the window depicted by Ernst does not entirely correspond with the windows in the photograph: the central part with the circle is similarly structured, but the frame with the stylized flowers cannot be seen in the contemporary photograph. Ernst may have painted the flowered frame in order to create a motivic connection between the architecture and the scene shown in the painting: the motif of the flower is taken up by the reclining woman, who holds a flower in her left hand, as well as the flowers arranged in a vase in the foreground.

Dating
c. 1890
Period
1870 – 1920

Provenance

Previous Owner

Lehrburger Collection · 1942, Sale, Sotheby's, New York, April 24th, lot 103 · Private collection, purchased at the above · 2004 Sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, June 3rd, lot 258 · 2017 Sale, Sotheby’s Paris, Lot 234

Image Information

Name of Image
MISC_IG_Ernst_IG_140
Credits
Artvee
Copyright
Public Domain

Citation suggestion

Tabbal, S. (2024). Languorous Oriental Lady with a Rose. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://vitrosearch.ch/objects/2712984.

Record Information

Reference Number
IG_140