CHARLES ROBERTSON | A STORY TELLER, MOROCCO

Joan Michelman Ltd., New York

Sale: Christie's, New York, 19 July 1983, lot 84

Mathaf Gallery, London (by 1994)

Purchased from the above

Caroline Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, p. 207, catalogued & illustrated

Lynne Thornton, The Orientalists Painter-Travellers, Courbevois, 1994, p. 159, catalogued & illustrated

London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1883, no. 1069

Outside the walls of a Moroccan town, an animated story-teller holds a crowd, enthralled and captivated with his tale. The scene is bathed in a shimmering light and reverberates with the dry heat of the day. Every minute detail is captured, from the exquisite costume of the figures to the fruit, vegetables and other exotic objects that litter the foreground. The architecture of the town is superbly rendered with the grand horseshoe arch of the gate, typical of Moroccan medinas. Here, Robertson brings to life the great storytelling tradition of Muslim society in a manner typical of his accurate and sensitive depictions of the Muslim world, which are always imbued with wonderment, admiration and appreciation.

Charles Robertson first travelled to North Africa in 1862, visiting Algeria where he was instantly enamoured by the local culture, customs and colours. Although he owned a home in Surrey, he regularly embarked on painting adventures to North Africa and the Middle East and visited Morocco, Egypt, Jerusalem, Damascus and Turkey. On his return to England, Robertson would depict all that he had seen and experienced in magnificent, exhibition-scale watercolours that were displayed at the Royal Academy and the Royal Water-Colour Society to great public and critical acclaim. Robertson followed in the tradition of artists such as David Roberts and John Frederick Lewis, who sought to depict an unvarnished and authentic representation of Arabic life.