FREDERICK ARTHUR BRIDGMAN | THE WEAVER

Private collection, USA (by 1992)

Mathaf Gallery, London

Purchased from the above 

Caroline Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, p. 27, catalogued & illustrated

In an Algiers interior, a girl in a diaphanous blouse and şalwar trousers pauses from her work weaving a rug or tablecloth and is momentarily lost in thought. Cigarette in hand, she slips off a babouche, the other having already been tossed aside. She is richly bejewelled with gold and silver bangles on both her wrists and ankles, and her hair is held in place by a headband and a circlet. Beside her, a tame gazelle looks on. The Ottoman-styled interior is richly decorated and filled with light, while shadows cast on the wall mirror the intricate patterns in the architecture.

Following his first trip to Cairo and Algeria in 1872, Bridgman turned almost exclusively to painting scenes of Egyptian and Algerian life. Putting up his family in the Hôtel de l'Orient in the Mustapha Supérieur quarter of Algiers, he used the services of a local guide, Belkassem, to gain access to private houses from which he would watch and paint daily life. Bridgman's experiences in Algeria and his prolific creative output led to the publication of a book, Winters in Algiers, illustrated with woodcuts modelled along the artist's drawings and paintings.