Painting Detail
Head of an ArabArtist: Horace Vernet
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 55.5x43 cm
Date: c. 1819
Genre: Portrait
Source: State Museum Fund, 1923
This is either a preparatory study for Vernet's now lost painting Ismail and Mariam or an enlarged copy of the central figure. The subject is derived from Voyage dans le Levant by the comte de Forbin, which tells of the tragic love of the young Arab Ismail for the Christian girl Mariam. After Mariam's death, Ismail is forced to leave the place where she is buried, but comes to the grave and opens it in order to look on his beloved one last time. Suddenly a sandstorm blows up and buries Ismail alongside the girl. The theme of fateful passion, the dynamic contrasts of light and shade, the effective contrast of the dusky face and the white turban, and the artist's interest in depicting feelings and emotions give this work much in common with the work of the Romantic artists.