Orientalist oil painting of an Algerian woman by H. Lazerges

Depicting an Algerian Kabyle woman, a member of an indigenous Algerian Berber ethnic group, this beautiful orientalist painting is a figurative portrait, executed in oil-on-panel, by the French artist Hippolyte Lazerges.

Full name: Jean Raymond Hippolyte Lazerges, (1817-1887), the artist studied in Paris at the studio of François Bouchot, from 1838 to 1843, before moving to Algeria, where he remained for the rest of his life. He had first visited North Africa in 1830, and when he settled there, his art, and his written compositions, in which he celebrated Algerian culture, were readily bought back home in France.

The current work is a fine representation of his oeuvre, which is full of this kind of observational portraits, showing the day-to-day life of Algerians at rest and at work. The woman stands relaxed, with a bright white dress, holding up a platter of couscous with her left hand. Another figure empty water in the background, through a small archway, and another vessel rests on the ground on the right.

The work is executed with great character and vitality, and woman's welcoming, charming presence, strongly conveyed. It is oil-on-panel, set in a carved giltwood frame, which is signed, situated and dated lower left 'Hip.te Lazerges / Alger - 1880.'

Frame: height 102cm, width 74cm, depth 10cm
Panel: height 69cm, width 38cm, depth 0.5cm