(Vienna 1859–1914)
North-African Still Life, signed, indistinctly dated R. Swoboda (18)83, label of Galerie Miethke with no. 655 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 75 x 120 cm, framed

Compare:
Herbert Zemen, Der Orientmaler Rudolf Swoboda 1859–1914.
Leben und Werk, Vienna 2004.

The Austrian Orientalist Rudolf Swoboda came from a family of artists, his father Eduard Swoboda was a successful genre painter and portraitist and his maternal uncle the important Orientalist Leopold Carl Müller. After a basic training with Ermenegildo Antonio Donadini, he attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and studied history painting with his uncle. Together with Müller he undertook his first research trip to Egypt in 1879. This was to be the first of many.
His first big career step was as court painter to Queen Victoria in London in 1885. There he created, besides portraits of the Royal Family, an important series of portraits showing Indians of different social classes and ethnic groups. The inspiration for this project came from the Colonial and Indian Exhibition in 1886. The Queen liked the first series so much that she sent Swoboda on a two-year study trip to India to create more portraits in the same style.
In 1892 Rudolf Swoboda left the English Royal Family and returned to Vienna. He continued to depict the Orient in his visual work and undertook regular study trips, from which he brought back special objects as souvenirs and sources of inspiration. His estate, which was auctioned off at Dorotheum in 1917, contained not only paintings but also a collection of handcrafted objects, including an “Old Arab rifle” (Zemen 2004, p. 220).
The present lot shows an evocative arrangement of North-African artefacts, demonstrating a wide range of artisanal techniques: a simple water bottle in a carrying net, woven baskets, an inlaid box, a finely knotted carpet and a shotgun. They come from Swoboda’s personal collection and are evidence of his travels.