Antique Austrian Orientalist cold-painted bronze lamp by Bergman
By Bergman, Franz Xaver (Austrian, 1861-1936)
£12,000
The largely forgotten technique of cold-painting is superbly showcased on this figurative lamp, its design featuring an Arab man warming himself near a campfire.
This sculptural lamp was crafted around 1910, by the renowned Austrian artist Franz Xaver Bergman (1861-1936). In this piece, Bergman depicts an Arab man warming himself by a campfire.
A tall palm tree hiding the light fixture towers over the male figure, its leaves crafted in a way as to represent their movement in the wind, an unusual feature on pieces of this type. The man is warmly wrapped up in many layers to protect him from the cold wind. The garments are rendered in muted tones, apart from the head covering which features bright yellow, red, and green details. A drink is heating up on the campfire, some of which the man is drinking from the mug in his hand. Behind the figure, leaning against the palm tree is a toppled-over vessel.
The rocky base is stamped with the typical Bergman markings – a ‘B’ in an urn-shaped cartouche.