+ Expand
Notes: No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
Born in Paris, Edouard Richter spent his childhood in the Netherlands and started his apprenticeship as a painter at the Hague Academy of Fine Arts. He later entered the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied under Ernest Hébert and Léon Bonnat. He was drawn to Orientalism very early in his work and, when he was accepted for the first time at the Paris Salon of 1866, he naturally decided to present Orientale à la Fontaine, Alger. He immediately met with commercial success, especially among American collectors.
Throughout his career, Richter was fascinated by oriental themes and mainly that of the Harem, which allowed him to depict beautiful women dressed in elaborate, bright coloured and exotic costumes, the whole set in a magnificent décor. His compositions were the product of intricate imaginary schemes, mixing many different architectural and ethnographic elements; every detail was the result of long, well-documented research. When Richter became a member of the prestigious Société du Salon des Artistes Français in 1881, Maurice du Seigneur welcomed him with these words: "Mr. Richter brings an infinite luxury to his finishing touch; his palette is an enchanting jewellery case in which colours are like topaz, rubies and sapphires at a liquid state and we remain astonished in front of his charming works" (L'Art et les Artistes du Salon de 1881, Paris, 1881, p. 130).
The Silk Merchant is the perfect example of Richter's unique style and technique. The construction of the scene is straightforward: in what looks like a harem courtyard, a young merchant displays his latest selection of fabrics to the charming residents. However, if the eye lingers on the composition, it can isolate many fascinating details. The décor, for example, reveals Richter's careful examination of, and debt to, the Moorish architecture of the Alhambra in Granada (fig. 1), which he incessantly sketched throughout his career. The costumes as well refer to very precise models. For instance, those of the seated ladies examining the fabrics are inspired by the Algerian traditional Karakou, also known as 'Kat', worn by Algerian noblewomen in the late 19th Century. The woman standing by their side wears a magnificent silk dress that shows motifs typical of the luxury silk industry of Lyon, set up by Louis XI in 1466, and whose fabrics were exported throughout the Near and Middle-East by this time.
Richter's work inspired many artists in the 1870s and 1880s, especially among the Austrian and German painters who settled at the time in Paris, such as Ludwig Deutsch and Rudolf Ernst. These painters admired his ability to renew and constantly recreate a particlarly poetic vision of the Orient.
