Orientalism | Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935)

For centuries, western artists have turned to North Africa and the Middle East as a source of inspiration and wonder. “The Orient”, a descriptor coined in the nineteenth century, was understood as a cultural and geographical concept inextricably linked to Islam and defined by Turkey, the Levant, Egypt and North Africa. 

"Contrary to Edward Said’s thesis (which takes issue primarily with written text, not paintings), I would say that the majority of Orientalist painters did not have a colonialist or political agenda, but were genuinely fascinated by the cultures they depicted," says Claude Piening, Sotheby’s Head of Orientalist Paintings.

From the Renaissance through to the eighteenth century, Orientalist elements featured in art, architecture and even fashion. Prompted by a post-Revolution surge in “Egyptomania”, the nineteenth century in France saw the apogee of the genre. In no other period was the output of Orientalist art so great, so diverse, or in such high demand. Many artists sought a new departure for their work and were captivated by the novelty, mystery and otherness of the East.


There are three primary reasons that the East was such an appealing subject to the western artist and audience. First, the vibrancy of culture and landscape was a shock to the senses. Artists’ diaries reveal their fascination with the intensity of sunlight and the captivating colours and atmosphere of city streets; Georges Clairin described it as a “dream of a life”, and it was one that mesmerised the European audience. Second, though Islamic culture differed vastly to the predominantly Christian Europe, visitors to the Orient nevertheless felt that they were returning to their historical and biblical roots. Numerous painters, especially British ones, used their art as a vehicle to recount Biblical stories in an authentic setting.

Mavi Boncuk |

Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935) was an Austrian painter who settled in Paris and became a noted Orientalist artist.


Details of Ludwig Deutsch's life are obscure. He was born in Vienna in 1855 into a well-established Jewish family. His father Ignaz Deutsch was a financier at the Austrian court.[1] He studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts 1872–1875, then, in 1878, moved to Paris where he became strongly associated with Orientalism.

He received his early art training at Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts Vienna) under the tutelage of Anselm Feuerbach (1875–1877). In 1877, when Feuerbach retired as a teacher, Deutsch and some others students attempted to enter the class of Leopold Carl Müller, who had moved to Paris in 1876, but initially were refused entry. In 1878 Deutsch was finally accepted. At around this time, he may also have studied with Jean-Paul Laurens. In Paris, Deutsch made the acqaintance of artists, Arthur von Ferraris, Jean Discart and Rudolf Ernst, who became his lifelong friend. Through these friendships, Deutsch developed an interest in Orientalist art. His first Orientalist painting was produced in 1881, some years before his first visit to Egypt.

In around 1880, he broke his contacts with Vienna and settled in Paris. He established a studio at Rue Le Pelletier in Paris and began to exhibit paintings with much success.

Though his earliest Orientalist subjects appeared in 1881, Deutsch's first documented journeys to the Middle East were made in 1885, 1890, and 1898, when he visited Egypt. Throughout the 1890s, he visited Egypt at least three times. Like many of his contemporaries, he found inspiration in the North African light, colours, scenery and customs. He collected a vast quantity of Oriental objects, including tiles, furniture, arms, pipes, fabrics, and costumes which he would subsequently used in his paintings.

Amongst his best known works are: The Scribe, painted 6 years after Paul Joanowits did Bashi-Bazouks Before a Gateway but in the same location, and Musical Interlude.

His early work focused primarily on historical subjects, but after visiting Egypt, he concentrated on Orientalist scenes. He was particularly interested in capturing the rich, opulent scenes of the Palace and its environs. The detail in his paintings is excellent. He was prolific, producing many paintings with the same theme – prayers, guards, musicians, street vendors etc.[8] In order to produce paintings in large volume, he created a virtual assembly line approach, using the same settings with different subjects and activities to create an impression of variety.Many of Ludwig Deutsch's paintings are now in the Shafik Gabr Collection.  Among Austrian Orientalist painters, his works are considered to be some of the most sought after by collectors.


Like many of his contemporaries, including Paul Joanovitch, Rudolf Ernst and Jean-Léon Gérôme, Deutsch made extensive use of photography to ensure archaeological accuracy in his painted renderings of local architectural features (e.g. tiles, ablaq stone work, and the traditional mashrabiyyah woodwork) in what has been described as documentary realism. This allowed him to use the Orient as inspiration, but to produce most of his paintings in his Paris studio.

Ludwig Deutsch showed Muslims from different countries with different skin tones praying against remarkably similar backdrops

Ludwig Deutsch’s The Scribe is an enigmatic image of 19th-century Cairo, in which a scribe – or katib, a type of secretary in the Arabic-speaking world – is seen musing on a marble ledge outside a mosque or palace. It’s a work of both immense detail – from the fine stripes of his silk gown and yellow-tassled shawl to the ornate inlay of his Syrian bone-and-ivory desk – that somehow remains inscrutable. The scribe could be pondering work, faith, love or perhaps mortality. “‘I like that the scribe is depicted as an artisan much like an artist, surrounded by the tools of his trade, it’s a wonderful mise en abyme,” observes Claude Piening, head of 19th Century European Pictures at Sotheby’s London. “Deutsch captures a moment in time with crystal-clear verisimilitude.”