Image: Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann, An Egyptian Pot Seller at Gizeh, 1876-78
On a recent visit to Copenhagen I found myself immersed in museum visits. There was the astonishing David Collection of Islamic art and European paintings, furniture and decorations; the palatial Glyptotek, with its vast collection of Greek and Roman antiquities; Rosenborg Castle, featuring the Danish Crown Jewels; the Danish Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind and with tilting, disorienting floors; and the glorious National Gallery of Denmark. I visited all five, and as any visit to a museum often entails the thrill of discovery, the National Gallery offered one that I found stunning.
It was a shimmering, densely colorful painting in the Orientalist style entitled An Egyptian Pot Seller at Gizeh by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1819-1881), an artist about whom I knew nothing. This sensuous portrait pulled my eyes in many directions, from the lush carpeting to the sitter’s entrancing, mysterious and seductive gaze. It was a masterpiece of exotic Middle Eastern mise-en-scène. And it had a fascinating story.
The 19th century genre of Orientalist paintings often depicted women in harems painted mainly by men. But men were not allowed in harems. As a woman, however, and one with Royal Danish patronage, the painter Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann was granted the privilege of entry to the harems of the Ottoman Empire during her extensive travels in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East in 1874-75. This enabled her to paint scenes of harem life (as the museum’s website noted) “from personal observation, in contrast to most artists of the time, whose work on this popular subject was entirely derived from the imagination.”
As further noted, the sensualism expressed in this and similar paintings was considered taboo in some parts of Europe throughout the 20th century. The Danish art world thus endeavored to remove such works from sight, and until recently Jerichau-Baumann’s paintings “were kept in museum storerooms in Denmark,” essentially banned from public view.
Here, then, were three compelling storylines of today’s art market come to life in one sensational painting: the rediscovery of a prominent woman artist of great talent; the lifting of an antiquated art market taboo; and the emergence from storage of paintings long unseen, unappreciated, and all but forgotten.
One wonders what further discoveries remain to be made in the vast catacombs of museum storerooms throughout the world.