Otto Pilny

Anonymous sale, Paris, Gros & Delettrez, 11 December 1991, lot 125;

With Galerie Nataf, Paris;

From whom acquired by the present owner.

Though little is known of Pilny's early artistic career, it may have been during a brief period of study in Vienna that he was encouraged to travel abroad. Ludwig Deutsch (1855–1935), Rudolf Ernst (1854–1932), and Carl Leopold Müller (1834–1892) had all made this city synonymous with Orientalist art, exhibiting their pictures of Middle Eastern life to great acclaim. Pilny's first trip to Egypt – the favorite destination of the Austro-Hungarian school – took place in 1889; a second journey followed three years later. The paintings that resulted record not merely the landscapes and people that Pilny encountered but also the magical effects of Eastern light and sun.