FDA-D.1704-2023

Parts

Object number

FDA-D.1704-2023

Object type

drawing

Identification

Title

Sheik Ali
Bedouin on a Camel

Title Type

assigned by artist
Previous title

Description

Painted portrait of a man on a camel within a desert landscape

Comments

Formerly titled Bedouin on a Camel, this work was first exhibited in the year it was painted, at the Society of Painters in Water Colours in London. A reviewer of the exhibition gave a full description: ‘”Sheikh Ali”, by Mr. Carl Haag, represents the Sheikh, a dark-bearded, handsome fellow, wearing his turban and red robe, seated in easy posture upon his advancing dromedary [Arabian camel], and chibouk [long tobacco pipe] in hand. The blue sky is partially obscured, and there is a sandstorm blowing up in the distance; but nothing disturbs this solitary chief of the desert…’. The depiction of the camel in this work is almost identical to camels in Haag’s watercolours titled A Bedaween [sic] on a Camel’s Back and The Shaik [sic] and his Guide, both dated 1874.

Description

Dimensions

height (actual size): 500mm
width (actual size): 357mm

Inscription

signed and dated lower right: 'Carl Haag, 1881’

Material

paper
watercolour

Materials & techniques note

Watercolour on paper

Production

Person

Haag, Carl, 1820 - 1915 (Artist)

Date

1881

History and association

Object history note

Provenance: Collection of Hilda Summers of Hook Norton; by whom presented to I.R. Amis in 1941;; collection of Richard Henry Allen Amis (K.S. 1945-50; 1932-2018); by whom bequeathed to Eton College

Exhibited: Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1881, catalogue number 100; 'An Etonian Collector: The Richard Amis Bequest', The Verey Gallery, Eton College, 16 November 2023 to 24 March 2024