Paul Pascal (1839-1905) - "arab Horseman"

Oil on panel Signed "P. Pascal" lower right Original gilded wood frame Dimensions: 25 x 20 cm With the frame: 46 x 41 cm The work represents an Arab rider on horseback, dressed in a white gandoura and a turban, with a rifle in his hand. In the background a desert landscape with rocky hills and sparse vegetation. This oil on panel by Paul Pascal is a characteristic work of 19th century orientalist painting. Biography: Paul Pascal was born in 1839 in Toulouse He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Madrid. He spent his youth traveling through Italy, North Africa, Syria and Turkey. In the 1870s, he was a decorative painter in Toulouse He exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1876 to 1880 and began a brilliant Parisian career as a landscaper, specializing in views of the Orient which he treated exclusively in gouache. He also liked to paint caravans, dancers, shepherds and their flocks, warriors and falcon hunts. Paul Pascal produced a large number of these picturesque views of a luminous Orient which are in the tradition of Delacroix or Fromentin, he was also interested in the landscapes of Italy, the Pyrenees and the French shores of the Mediterranean or the South-West. After having traveled through Argentina, he arrived in the United States in 1893 where he continued to work on his favorite theme, orientalism while introducing new colors and scenes of life with Indians (a theme unknown in France) into his works. He ended his life in Washington, paralyzed in the hand and totally impoverished. Paris-Manaus Gallery