PAUL LAZERGES | CAMEL TRAIN BY MOONLIGHT

Mathaf Gallery, London (by 1983)

Purchased from the above 

Caroline Juler, Najd Collection of Orientalist Paintings, London, 1991, pp. 188-89, catalogued & illustrated

Possibly, Paris, Salon, 1899 (as Caravane arrivant à Biskra)

London, Mathaf Gallery, Summer Exhibition, Important Orientalist Paintings of the 19th Century, 1983, illustrated in the catalogue

London, Mathaf Gallery, Spring Exhibition, Important Orientalist Paintings of the 19th Century, 1984, illustrated in the catalogue

While camel caravans were a common subject in Orientalist art, night scenes like this one are rare. Loaded with goods, a camel caravan arrives on the outskirts of an oasis, backlit by moonlight and a starry sky. The setting appears to be North Africa, possibly Biskra in Algeria, which Lazerges frequented.

Lazerges exhibited a nocturnal landscape titled Caravane arrivant à Biskra, very possibly the present work, at the Paris Salon of 1899. Gaining fame at the Paris Salon with his portraits of notable society figures, including the actress Sarah Bernhardt, Lazerges soon turned to Orientalist subjects, inspired by his travels to North Africa and by the Orientalist paintings by his father Hippolyte Lazerges.