In this tranquil scene of domestic harmony, Bridgman (American, 1847 - 1928) evokes the pleasure of passing an idle afternoon on the terrace of a north African home, conversing and playing board games. Typically for Bridgman, the composition is devoid of a clear narrative, and it is left up to the viewer to interpret the interaction between individual figures. Bridgman was first and foremost interested in evoking a sensual experience, through the almost palpable contrast between the hot sun and the cool shade of the foreground, as well as the luxuriant colours and textures set against the carefully observed domestic architecture.
It was generally the structures of only the grandest establishments that dictated the idea of the harem to western painters. Above all, there was the 'Grand Seraglio' of the Ottoman Sultan at Constantinople which guided European mythologies of the harem for centuries. The reality, however, was quite different. As European and American travellers explored the Middle East in larger numbers from the 1840s onwards, they were able to see, or at least hear, for themselves that harems were not places where women were kept as chattels or imprisoned at the whim of their masters, but elegantly discreet spaces of domestic harmony.
[Sold for £181,250 at Sotheby’s, London - Oil on canvas, 54 x 81.3 cm]