Serkis Diranian (1854-1938), The Bath Or Women In The Hammam, Oil, Armenia, Turkey

Serkis or Sarkis Diranian (Constantinople 1854-Paris 1938)
The bath or Women in the hammam
Oil on canvas
29.2 x 46.2 cm (canvas)
44.5 x 61 cm (framed)
Signed lower right (signature very erased)
Good condition - restorations - a restoration in the frame

Orientalist painter Ottoman, of Armenian origin, Serkis Diranian spent a long part of his life in Paris. He studied at the Academy of Drawing and Painting opened by Guillemet in 1875 in Péra (European district of Constantinople). He then left for Paris where he entered the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. In 1889, he graduated from the Académie des Beaux Arts and participated until 1910 in the exhibitions of the society of French artists in Paris. In 1908 he presented a solo exhibition in Paris and in 1909 participated in a mixed exhibition in Munich. This painting with an orientalist subject, dating from the very end of the 19th century, represents two naked women in discussion in the hammam, a great meeting place in Turkish culture. We find in this work all the delicacy of Diranian in the rendering and transparency of the flesh and water, as well as his sense of detail on the patterns such as the tiling on the wall, the rose bed or the fabrics placed on the floor. ground. A pastel in his hand, with a very similar subject and composition, is dated 1897.