Bachi-Serai

The recent revival of interest in Orientalism has led to the rediscovery of the technically outstanding but unfairly sidelined Dutch painter and printmaker Marius Bauer (1867-1932). Bauer was an inveterate traveller, going off to India, Indonesia, Turkey, Palestine and Morocco among other destinations. In 1888 he was given the opportunity to make his first trip east, to Istanbul (then Constantinople) by the art dealer E.J. van Wisselingh. He returned with more than 100 drawings and several full sketchbooks. This pattern repeated itself again and again.

Among the cities he visited were Cairo, Luxor, Jerusalem, Agra and Benares. He was irresistibly drawn to street life, the colorful populace and the exotic landscape of parts of the world that were then unfamiliar to most people. There Bauer found inspiration for spacious landscapes and picturesque city scenes. Many of his works were based on photographs he bought during his travels, some of which were by famous photographers such as Felix Bonfils.

This quintessentially 'Orientalist' drypoint by Bauer depicts groups of women in a harem, standing by a fountain before a wall in Bachi-Serai (present-day Bakhchysarai) on the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine - an unusual locale, but testifying to the extent of his travels. The print also includes part of the residence of the Tatar Khans. Bakhchysarai was the centre of the Tatar state of the Crimean peninsula and is currently part of the territory illegally annexed by Russia as the Republic of Crimea.

See:

https://www.codart.nl/guide/exhibitions/marius-bauer-1867-1932/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marius_Bauer

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   February 2018