PROVENANCE
Sold sale of Christie's East: Nineteenth Century European Art, September 13, 2000, lot 155
Private Collection, Vancouver

Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847 – 1928) was one of only several recognized American painters practicing in the Orientalist genre in the 19th Century. Bridgman was born in Alabama, but moved to Paris by the age of 19 to study painting. Paris became his permanent home in 1870, and he spent his summers in the famous Pont-Aven American art colony in Brittany. Bridgman quickly aligned himself with some of the most well-known Classical and Orientalist painters of the 19th Century, including his teacher Jean-Léon Gérôme. They shared a common interest in depicting populated scenes from Northern Africa, and spent a great deal of time traveling through Morocco, Algeria and Egypt. Bridgman often painted lavish, exotic tableaus with historical and biblical references in sun-drenched colours. Algerian Mother and Child is a later work that captures a quiet domestic scene in which the pair seem as though caught unawares by the artist. Their eyes share a familial similarity, and both the mother and her offspring are bound together by the white and crimson robes. The artist spent a great deal of time throughout his career befriending the Algerian people, gaining unprecedented access to a secret world mostly hidden from 19th Century Europeans. Throughout his career, he was able to translate these cultures in his painting to great fanfare. His work maintained great popularity in France and the United States until his death in 1928.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars