90th Auction

2014/11/15

Lot 413

Théodore Le Roy, Paris, Movement No. 1220, Height 155 mm, circa 1860
A very fine hour repeating carriage clock "The Harem" with half hour / hour self stirke
Case: brass, gilt, moulded base and cornice, enamel panels to the sides with fine polychrome oriental depicting, facet glazed front, back and top, waved handle with fluted middle part, bracket feet, button for repeating mechanism. Dial: enamel, polychrome painted with a young lady holding a fan sitting in a hammock, radial Roman numerals, blued Fleur-de-Lys hands. Movm.: rectangular-shaped brass movement, keywind, 1 hammer / 1 gong, platform with English lever escapement, screw compensation balance.
Romanticism in the 19th century
In the 19th century people were fascinated by cultural differences and the notion that a long history and development had achieved the contemporary level of civilisation in Europe. Foreignness and cultural differences became objects of investigation. The romanticists of the 19the century developed great interest and passion for the so-called "native cultures" which suddenly seemed superior in ways to the highly developed Western nations.
During the 18th and 19th centuries the Ottoman Empire’s policies of expansion had come to a standstill and the Islamic world was in turn fast becoming a target for the expansion ambitions of the European nations. At the same time a strangely romanticised view of the Orient began spreading through the Western world.
Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign (1798-99) brought a surge of interest in the Pharaonic Period about that found its reflection in the applied arts of the time; the Greek War of Independence, the Crimean War (1854-1855) and the opening of the Suez Channel turned foreign attention to the Middle East. European painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries such as Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Alexandre Roubtzoff worshipped the Orient’s sensuous beauty and tried to capture its mythic essence in their works.
Romantic art comes in many different variations; it is, however, always imbued with sensitivity and melancholy, embracing the past and cherishing nature.
Sources: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalismus_%28Kunst%29 and
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/19._Jahrhundert, as of 03/30/2011

Sold

estimated
4.2005.500 €
Price realized
6.200 €