Frederick Arthur Bridgman

Private Collection, Connecticut
Private Collection, Europe

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is in beautiful condition. It has been quite recently restored; the frame may need some attention but the painting is ready to hang. The canvas is not lined, the tacking edges have been reinforced and the reverse of the original canvas has been treated with an adhesive to strengthen and de-acidify it. The paint layer is not abraded and the quality and condition throughout is very good. In the top of the archways in the center left there is a small "L" shaped restoration which may correspond to a small "L" shaped break in the canvas measuring approximately 1 x ½ inches long. On the upper right hand edge there is a line of restorations which also most likely corresponds to a break in the canvas. In the lower left there is some old varnish and some visible retouches which may correspond to paint loss yet there appear to be no major issues here. The remainder of the painting is in perfect condition with no restorations.
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Frederick Arthur Bridgman's distinct perspective would serve him well as he traveled to North Africa and the Middle East in search of artistic inspiration. He was born in Alabama and, during the tumult of the American Civil War, moved with his family to New York City where he would have his initial artistic training and work as a draftsman at the American Bank Note Company from 1864-65. This background distinguished him from his European contemporaries when he moved to Paris in 1866, maintaining a studio and earning his reputation as the greatest American Orientalist painter of the nineteenth century.

In the late 1860s, Bridgman joined the artist's colony at Pont Aven, Brittany, which would later develop recognition through the bold chromatic hues used by artists Paul Gauguin and Emile Bernard. Later, Bridgman would work in the Paris studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme where he would continue his classical training. The grey landscape of France, and particularly of Brittany, did not hold Bridgman's attention, however, and in his book, Winters in Algiers, published in 1889, Bridgman reflects on the magnetic power that North Africa held over him:

Was it due to the fact of my having been born in Alabama, with sunlight in my bones, that I felt at home in Algeria when I first set foot on her genial soil in 1872? Or was my satisfaction the effect of the contrast to dark and dingy Brittany, where the interiors are black, and the mud floors absorb the sun's rays; where the low gray clouds could serve as an appropriate frame and background to no other low-toned, sullen, and sombre figure than the Breton, and where white objects are not luminous, because they are not supported and encouraged to shine by the reflections from their surroundings? Certain it is that my first impressions of North Africa can never be dispelled. The near prospect of revisiting its sunny shores was to me one of those delightful anticipations in life which haunt the fancy; and no sooner had I set foot on land than I began with joy to sniff the odors so peculiar to Oriental towns—perfumes of musk, tobacco, orange-blossoms, coffee, hashish—a subtle combination which impregnates Algerine clothing and hovers about the shops and bazaars. (Bridgman, New York, 1889, p. 2)

In this memoir, Bridgman recounts his travels in North Africa, and his wonder and enthusiasm that is so evident in his paintings. As he traveled, he would paint extensively en plein air and return to his studio in Paris with many intimate oil sketches which would be built up into a larger finished piece, as is likely the case here. Individual studies of architectural details and decorative arts (seen in the detail of the rug strewn on the banister above the rows of glazed tiles), people and their costumes, and even flora and fauna (such as the exquisite rendering of flowers in the foreground, from geraniums and succulents to climbing flowering trees up the front of the building, and in the inclusion of the small antelope) come together to create an artistic tour de force. In this atmospheric painting, Bridgman has implied an ambiguous narrative as two men have an exchange in the shaded yard of a residence as a cloaked figure seems to watch and eavesdrop from the behind a screen on the terrace.