Sunday, January 21, 2018

Alfred de Dreux - Oriental horses

Salvete Omnes,
Sunday morning and here we can enjoy some wonderful XIX century paintings where the horse is the very subject, sort of in the tradition of Carl Vernet and Theodore Gerricault .

Master-painter, from Fra nce,  Alfred de Dreux's works are for the first time presented separately on my blog; sadly, the prolific author died in his prime, depraving the world of his talented brushwork.
So here we will look at some of his oli on canvas works showing Oriental, North African horses - be it Arabians or Barbs.
Below, clearly an Oriental bay stallion, with two grey stallions in the back of the pasture - European setting.
and two paintings that show the same Arabian? bay horse and his owner? groom?


clearly the same horse and and this time clearly a groom in this painting, for it is titled Horses of Abd el Kader, and emir  Abd el Kader was the famous religious and military leader of the  Muslim resistance against the French invasion of Algeria in the first half of the XIX century.
So perhaps the black man in the other paintings is the groom of emir's horses. Presumably this Hassan was taken as a slave, perhaps in Sudan or Niger etc. Note that Abd el Kader was taken with the ruler of Egypt, famous Albanian Mamluk warrior Muhammad Ali, and perhaps this Algerian emir had some Egyptian Arabs in his stables, as the grey horse is clearly an Arabian stallion.

An African groon with a blood horse on the beach - Arabian or Barb steed.

and a Sudanese groom  mounted on the white Arabian? stallion

Enjoy the beautiful brushowork of this talented Parisian artist.

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