LUDWIG DEUTSCH | THE SCRIBE

Mathaf Gallery, London

Purchased from the above

Caroline Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, p. 45, cited, p. 55, catalogued & illustrated

Martina Haja & Günther Wimmer, Les Orientalistes des écoles allemandes et autrichiennes, Courbevoie, 2000, p. 206, catalogued & illustrated

This painting depicts a scribe or katib in Cairo, seen meditating on a marble ledge outside what appears to be the entrance to a mosque or palace. Deutsch captures a moment in time with crystal clear verisimilitude: the scribe's concentrated mien, the striped silk gown and yellow tasseled shawl he wears, the silk cushion cover beside him, his Syrian bone-and-ivory-inlaid desk, ink well and stylus, and silvered nargileh. All are framed by two striking, vertical and geometric Mamluk pietra dura bands in the wall behind.

One of the traditional professions in the Middle East, public scribes earned a living by both reading and writing. They were respected, educated individuals in a culture that placed a high value on literacy and the subtleties of elegant calligraphy. In painting The Scribe, Deutsch may well have been thinking of the many depictions of scribes in Ancient Egyptian art as well as of their role in contemporary society. One example, dating from circa 2600-2350 BC and known as the scribe accroupi, was discovered in Saqqara in 1850 and entered the collection of the Louvre.

By exploring the theme of literacy in Egyptian culture, Deutsch is simultaneously celebrating its glorious history and underlining its importance in both secular and religious life, at a time when modern innovations in the printing process were threatening the traditional role of professional scribes. As a painter in an age of mechanical reproduction, Deutsch may have felt sympathy for their situation as skilled professionals facing potential obsolescence.