Works by Marius Bauer (1867-1932)
'Traveller-painter through and of the Orient'
Marius Bauer (1867-1932)
‘Devotie in de Woestijn’ (Devotion in the Dessert near the pyramids of Gizeh, circa 1919)
Signed lower right and titled lower left
Watercolour on paper, H. 43 x 59.5 cm
With at the reverse a sticker ‘Galerie Assindia, Essen’ and another sticker with a farewell text in German signed by 33 employees of the Scholven- Chemie A.G. in Gelsenkirchen at the parting after 25 years in the firm of one of their colleagues, in 1960.]]
Marius Bauer was a travelling artist and the best-known Dutch orientalist. Fakirs, mosques, the bazaar, camels, snake charmers, belly dancers, a caravan in the desert, and oriental antiquities, are the subjects that feature in his work time and again and catered to the need for the ‘exotic’ East in European interiors and with art collectors. The magical light he was able to create in his works reflects his fascination for the ‘Orient’.
He was 21 when he embarked on his first significant journey, which took him, in the autumn of 1888, to Istanbul, the ancient city of domes and minarets along the Bosporus. There he fell under the spell of the ‘Orient’, and would be enchanted for the rest of his life.
The first time he visited Egypt, staying in Cairo, was in 1894. The second time Bauer was in Egypt was in 1919 when he stayed in Luxor and Karnak for five weeks. That is when he painted the present beautiful view of the pyramids of Gizeh and the Sphinx.
Marius Bauer (1867-1932)
Arriving at the Palitana temples, Gujarat, India (circa 1898)
Signed lower right and with title on a label of Kunsthandel E.J. van Wisselingh, Amsterdam on the reverse
Pencil, chalk, watercolour and gouache on paper, H. 46 x W. 78 cm
Marius Bauer visited India for the first time in 1897-98. India fascinated him, and he wrote enthusiastically from Palitana to the Dutch art dealer E.J. van Wisselingh who supported him: “Order a thousand etching plates and a thousand reams of paper for a thousand Akëdyssérils. We will earn thousands of Guilders!” (Akëdysséril was a book by Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam about the mysterious East illustrated by Bauer in 1894.) In this correspondence Bauer writes a lot about, and bought, Indian antiques. These were used by the art dealer to decorate houses of wealthy Amsterdam families who also bought a lot of prints and paintings by Bauer. They indeed both made a lot of money out of the visit to India, and Bauer produced his best works during this fruitful period.