Mosque in British India

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, Benares and here, off  the 'Orientalist' circuit, Moscow. In late 2017 the Pulchri Studio in The Hague held an exhibition commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Bauer, "Marius Bauer: Verslaafd aan het Oosten".

In the <em>Catalogue of an exhibition of etchings and drawings by Dutch masters from Rembrandt to Bauer </em>(1915), Arthur Tomson is quoted from his article in <em>The Studio </em>as saying of this etching (no. 68): "Other pictures by Bauer are arranged entirely in a minor key. No sort of accentuation interferes with their perfect serenity. Out of these silvery mysteries loom fitfully bits of old world architecture, or strange figures that affect the brain more as passing thoughts than as anything wrought by pencil, chalk, or etching needle."

See:

Arthur Tomson, 'Dutch etcher: M. Bauer', <em>The Studio </em>(1900) v. 83, pp. 38-42.

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

Dr Mark Stocker  Curator, Historical International Art   February 2018