(Dresden 1834–1892 Vienna)
Egyptian Water Carriers, signed and dated Leopold Carl Müller, 1880, oil on canvas, 72 x 118 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
French Gallery London/H. Wallis, sold to Alexander Young in 1880
Private German property


Compare:
Orientalische Reise, Malerei und Exotik im späten 19. Jhdt.,
306th Special Exhibition of the Vienna Museum in cooperation with the
Residenzgalerie Salzburg, Vienna Museum Hermesvilla, 16th October 2003 – 12th April 2004, p. 179, no. 27 (Genre scene with water carrier, composition study) 

“You know them, these gracious females with the enormous water jugs they carry with such ease, one arm, slim and beautiful, stretched upwards to the handle of the jar, the other pushed against the hip. How wonderfully their clothing falls! We painters, with our deliberateness, are dabblers compared to these women with their innate sense of the ordering of robes”, wrote Leopold Carl Müller on 6.1.1877 to his friend, the Egyptologist and writer Georg Ebers.1 Three years later, when the artist had completed this work (1880), he was at the prime of his artistry. After four years of his professorship at the Academy in Vienna he even thought about laying down his office and starting a new life as self-employed artist, the prices for his orientalistic work having previously skyrocketed, most notably in London: 

“What a shame that Leipzig is so far, and I am still bound to my professorship here at the Academy. […] Most likely I will lay down my office by the end of August next year, to be a free man again. […] Piled with orders, I am on my way to be rich man. You know, for four years I have been tempted to try to gain a foothold in London, to break into the market there. It was hard in the beginning, but now I have left the worst behind! My paintings are selling for sensational prices. About three weeks ago a small piece of mine was sold for 1.500 pounds (18.000 in guilder) at the French-Gallery. It caused such a stir that even Queen Victoria had it brought and shown to her. […] For a year now a continuous, golden rain of pounds has been pouring down on me, and I have plenty of reason to believe that this rain will only get heavier. I will soon send you photographs of my latest work.” (Letter to Ebers, December 13, 1879).2

Between 1874 and 1886 Müller travelled to Egypt nine times, a country he loved excessively, capturing his impressions in countless paintings, studies and sketches and describing them in innumerable letters. It was not the Pharaohs’ imposing relics which irresistibly drew the artist’s attention, but rather the life of the local people and their activity on the streets and squares of Egypt.

“What interests me the most about Egypt is all the folk customs manifested in God’s free and beautiful open air, the hustle and bustle of the markets, customs on the graveyards and in the villages and life in the desert.” (Letter to Ebers, November 11, 1876).3 

This painting, with its unbelievably realistic details, is witness to Müller’s
enthusiasm and proof of his complete artistic skills.
On a beautiful day with blue skies a woman carrying water strides out, accompanied by a girl and followed by a man who is bent forward and carrying a full waterskin on his back, all returning from a watering place. These three figures form the focus of the painting and the artist has been meticulous in the execution of this group. While the dark-skinned woman supports a full jug of water on her head with her left hand, in the right she holds a fold of her dress. Müller has reproduced the bearing of the fellahin as she appears to effortlessly carry a heavy water jug in a matchless manner. Only her eyes, turned to the ground, reveal her concentration. The woman’s head is swathed in a black veil, with earrings protruding from under its sides. The deep cut of her dress reveals a glimpse of her opulent gold jewellery covering her neck and breast. Whilst bangles on arms and legs and earrings were typical everyday wear for Egyptian fellahin, the jewellery around the breast appears to be an addition by the artist. This particular form of jewellery appears prominently in several of Müller’s paintings.4

As naturalistic as the painting may seem, it does not document a particular place or time. During his month-long sojourns Müller would undoubtedly have been witness to such common scenes, though. The composition of the painting is a meticulously planned arrangement of individual motifs which the artist combined into an impressive whole, following his artistic sensibilities and particularly his outstanding ability to observe, set into a realistic backdrop which perfectly captures the situation, atmosphere and light. These methods are characteristic of the artist, in fact single figures, groups of figures as well as certain elements in the background can also be found in similar poses and positions in some of this other paintings. An example is a small landscape study (oil on wooden panel, 21 x 42,5 cm)5 with palm trees and loam houses in the background, which architecture- and landscape-wise almost exactly matches the composition of the present painting. The group of buildings on the left-hand side of the painting is of particular interest, with both, its large and small dome and the distinctive minaret, a “blunt” tower lacking a spire. The characteristic form of this mosque makes it easy to identify, as Müller also captured it in one of his watercolours 6, which served as a draft for a woodcut in the splendid edition „Ägypten in Bild und Wort“ 7.  It is the mosque named after the Muslim saint Ibrahim el-Desuki in the city of Desuk in the north-west of the Nile delta which Müller visited during his first journey to Egypt in 1874.8

“I was at the market in Desuc two years ago, took the photographer Steiner from Cairo with me and took 30 photographs [sic!] in this city of Ibrahim. 
Can you also use a sort of view of Desuc, i.e. of the large mosque... I had the glass plates from these photographs destroyed. Therefore no one has my photographs.” (letter to Ebers, November 9, 1876)9

As Müller was fond of working with such mismatched pieces, it remains questionable whether he really wanted to set his “Water Carriers” in the west delta. It is more likely that the picturesque view served as a welcome backdrop for water carriers who represent Egypt’s timeless female peasant folk.10 A complete study (oil on wooden panel, 51,5 x 83 cm) for the “Water Carriers” exists and was last to be seen at the 2003/2004 exhibition “Oriental travels. Painting and exoticism in the late 19th century” 11. It is interesting that the study is an almost complete match with the painting which was finished and dated 1880, which gives insight in Müller’s way of working. The most notable difference is the lighter skin colour compared to the dark (Nubian?) complexion in the final version. The painting is signed and dated but there is no mention of place, so it is not possible to determine whether the work was actually completed in Egypt.12 This painting was sold to Alexander Young as “Egyptian Water Carriers” at French-Gallery in London in 1880 and was exhibited in a retrospective of Müller’s work in 1885-1886. Later the paintings seems to have disappeared from the scene until it resurfaced at Dorotheum in 2010. The archive of the Austrian National Library has an old glass-negative of the painting (signature 240.381) titled „Ägypter am Fluß Wasser holend“, which shows undeniably the present painting.13

1H. Zemen, Leopold Carl Müller 1834-1892. Ein Künstlerbildnis nach Briefen und Dokumenten, 2. vermehrte Auflage Wien 2001, S. 278, Nr. 188; Water carriers appear in various Müller’s paintings and studies, varying in posture and composition, clearly showing his preference for these women. Most significant among them are: „Beduins in the desert near Giza“ (1874), Ancient Egypt in Nineteenth Century Painting (publ. by Patrick and Viviane Berko), Brussels, 1992, p. 12 f., 138; „Sugar cane market“, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere,
Inv. No. 9515; „Market in Cairo“ (1878), Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Inv. Lg. 353; „Arabic girl carrying water“ Historisches Museum der Stadt, Wien
Inv. No. 117.371; „Camel market in Cairo“ (around 1886), Orient.
Österreichische Malerei zwischen 1848 und 1914 (publ. by Erika Mayr-Oehring), Residenzgalerie Salzburg (20.7.–24.9.1997), Salzburg 1997, S. 200f. Kat. Nr. 37; „Halt in the desert“, M. Haja, G. Wimmer, Les orientalistes des écoles allemande et autrichienne. ACR édition Les orientalistes vol. 14, Paris 2000, S. 306 (mistakenly dated „1876“ instead of 1880).

2 Zemen, Müller, S. 264 f., Nr. 177

3 Zemen, Müller, p. 390, No. 302
4 see i.g. „The drummer girl“, 1.553 Kunstauktion, Dorotheum Wien from
Dec. 10, 1987, Lot 934; Müller’s sister Marie, who travelled to Egypt in 1884, also painted some orientalistic subjects, among them a fellahin (Dorotheum Wien, „Gemälde und Aquarelle des 19. Jahrhunderts, from Oct. 29, 2007,
Lot 237), who also wears this little accessoiry, which might have been added by her brother, who probably owned one of these himself.

5 H. Zemen, Leopold Carl Müller im Künstlerhaus. Die Orientbilder. Appendix: Eine Sammlung von 16 Naturstudien aus Ägypten in Wiener Privatbesitz, Wien 1998, p. 178 No. 10 with colour illustrations; id., Müller, p. 686 f. with fig. 29; Zemen dated the sektch to the year 1881 and identified it as a view at a village in northern Egypt. The sketch serving as reference for the painting from 1880 and Müller visiting northern Egypt only once, from late December 1880 to early March 1881, suggest that he produced the sketch probably on one of the numerous journeys to the Nile delta he made during his first visits to Egypt.

6 The watercolour was sold at Auktionshaus Michael Zeller, Lindau/Bodensee in the XL. Internationalen Bodensee-Kunstauktion from Oct. 4 to Oct 8, 1988 as lot 1285 „Sign. Mosque of Saint Ibrahim in Desuk. Hustle and bustle in front of the mosque in bright daylight”, Watercolour, 17 x 25 cm“
7 Ägypten in Bild und Wort. Dargestellt von unseren ersten Künstlern. Beschrieben von Georg Ebers. Bd. I, Stuttgart 1879, p. 85 „ Mosque of Saint Ibrahim in Desuk“.
8 The mosque dates back to the era of Sultan Khalil Qalawuns (1280-90), however, with the saint’s mausoleum becoming a more and more popular pilgrimage site, the complex was extended in the the 15th century by Sultan Qaitbey (1468-96). That was the state it was in when Müller painted it in 1874 during his first visit to Egypt, before Khedive Taufik (1879-1892) had it enhanced again in 1880. Up until today the annual festivities in honour of the saint bring thousands of Muslims from all over the world to Desuk, and further modifications made the mosque one of the largest of its kind in the world today. Müller was very attracted to the oriential atmosphere of these religious feasts, writing to Ebers in 1877: “You were absolutely right, sending me to Tata (central place in the Nile delta, author’s note)… It is such a bustle! You wish you had a hundred more eyes, and if you had six pair of ears, you’d wish you’d have eight pairs less. But the eyes are so busy all other senses are are shut down.” (Zemen, Müller, p. 331, No. 250)

9 Zemen, Müller, p. 267, No. 177

10 That Müller witnessed such a scene is beyond any doubt. Compare the atmospheric description of women carrying water in Fuwa, a village near Desuk, by orientalist Edward William Lane and his sister Sophia Poole, E. W. Lane, Description of Egypt. Notes and Views in Egypt and Nubia, made during the years 1825, –26, –27, and –28. (publ. by J. Thompson), Cairo 2000, p. 54 f.;
S. Poole, The Englishwoman in Egypt. Letters from Cairo. Written during a residence there in 1842-46 (publ. by A. Karah), Cairo, New York 2003, S. 28 f.

11 306. Sonderausstellung des Wien Museums, Wien 2003, p. 179, No. 27: „Genre scene with water carriers (composition study)“, around 1875, oil on wooden panel, 51,5 x 83 cm; The date stated in the catalogue is too early. The study might be one of the sketches published by the artist in the “Annals” (see footnote 12). Also, that the painting was sold in Egypt back then is de facto not true. The study remained in the artist’s possession until his death and was first offered for sale as lot 46 in Müller’s estate auction at Galerie Miethke in Vienna in 1893: LXXXVII. Kunst-Auction von H. O. Miethke in Vienna. Katalog des künstlerischen Nachlasses Leopold C. Müller’s K. K. Professor der Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Wien. Wien 1893 (publ. by Hugo O. Miethke), p. 19: „At the banks of river Nile. Women scooping water and men at the banks of river Nile. Unfinished  painting.” The study was sold as lot 63 at Galerie Hassfurther in Vienna in 2004, see Catalogue Galerie Hassfurther from May 27, 2004, p. 106, fig. p. 107.

12 Many of Müller’s works have the location next to signature and date, i.e. “Cairo” or “Vienna”, which indicates where the painting was finished. The English names suggest that Müller was predominantly aiming at the English market, where many of his paintings sold trough H. Wallis’ “French Gallery” and where he rose to fame much earlier than in Vienna. The perfected completion and the subject make the painting, beyond any doubt, one of the main works in the artist’s Œuvre. The “Annals”, a catalogue raisonné started be the artist himself, contain a study of “Water carrier” and “The water carrier” respectively as early as 1879, followed by a painting titled “The water carrier” in 1880, and another of the same title in 1881.

12 Zemen, Müller, p. 572, 592 f.

A. o. Univ. Prof. Dr. Peter-Christian Jánosi,
Institut für Ägyptologie, Universität Wien

Wir danken Dr. Peter Jánosi, für die wissenschaftliche Unterstützung: "Sie kennen Sie ja, diese graziösen Weiber mit den riesigen Wasserkrügen die sie so leicht tragen, den einen schlanken immer schön geformten Arm senkrecht gestreckt bis zum Henkel