A Merchant in Cairo

A single male figure in Arab dress, perhaps of Nubian origin, sits on a carpet and leans on a second, rolled carpet that is propped against the outer wall of a building on a paved Cairo street. He holds a long, smoking pipe in his right hand and looks away, apparently lost in thought. Arrayed beside him on the steps of a doorway are his wares, including, in addition to vessels of glazed and unglazed pottery, a brass pitcher, a dagger with its sheath, and a water pipe. In the foreground an assortment of pipe bowls are laid out on a woven plate. This subject was inspired by the artist’s travels to Egypt, which he first visited in 1865 on the recommendation of his teacher, Jean-Léon Gérôme. Careful attention to ethnographic detail reflects Lecomte du Nouÿ’s academic training and stands in contrast to the merchant’s detachment from his surroundings. Lecomte du Nouÿ was Gérôme’s favorite pupil; he also collaborated with their colleague Charles Bargue, who was also drawn to Orientalist subjects.

Documentation in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, indicates that the painting was executed in 1870 and that its title was assigned by the artist himself (see Diederen 2004). Its early history is unknown, but given its modest dimensions, subject, and high degree of finish it was probably intended for the burgeoning market in such subjects, which was driven by private collectors both in France and abroad.

Asher Ethan Miller 2015

Inscription: Signed (lower left): LECOMTE-DUNOUY

sale, Sotheby's, New York, October 31, 2000, no. 34, as "The Opium Smoker"; Kenneth Jay Lane, New York (by 2004–15)

New York. Dahesh Museum of Art. "From Homer to the Harem: The Art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ," June 22–September 19, 2004, no. 56 (lent by Kenneth Jay Lane, New York).

Guy de Montgailhard. Lecomte du Noüy. Paris, 1906, p. 116, lists it under 1869 as "Marchand de poteries au Caire".

Roger Diederen. From Homer to the Harem: The Art of Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ. Exh. cat., Dahesh Museum of Art. New York, 2004, pp. 97, 153, no. 56, fig. 89 (color), calls the painting "A Pottery Merchant in Cairo" and dates it 1870 based on an annotated photograph given by the artist to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, which identifies it as "Marchand au Caire".

The painter was inconsistent in the spelling of his name, shifting the diacritical mark between the u and the y, sometimes inserting a hyphen in his last name, and at times combining the particle "du" with the name "Nouy." For the spelling used here, see Diederen 2004 (p. 135 n. 2, under Chapter One).