Sale: Christie's, New York, October 30, 2001, lot 102, illustrated
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Very good condition. On stable panel. Frame abrasion visible along lower left edge. Surface accretions at lower left corner. Under UV: Inpainting to address aforementioned frame abrasion. Fine lines of inpainting to address scratch at center right edge.
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By the second half of the nineteenth century, Orientalist painters had a variety of exhibition venues to choose from.  Audiences across Europe and America seemed not to tire of their images of the Middle East and North Africa, purchasing them at every price point and in every artistic genre.  In England, landscapes, religious subjects, and scenes of daily life were especia🗹lly admired, as was a didactic, or "ethnographic", approach.  In France, the role of Orientalism was somewhat different.  Subjects were more sensational and impassioned; they captured the energy and the (perceived) excesses of the region, through a variety of techniques and styles. The most versatile artists were able to walk the line between these differing national tastes, finding success at every turn.  Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) is perhaps the best-known example of these international celebrities, but the name of Philippe Pavy cannot be far behind.  In the present work, the reasons for Pavy's widespread appeal can be identified, and his accomplishments as a painter appreciated as well.

In the 1870s and 1880s, the French painter Philippe Pavy traveled throughout Spain, North Africa, and Egypt.  Accompanying him was his brother, Eugène Pavy, also an artist.  The two settled in London for some time, perhaps recognizing that their preferred subjects– single-figure studies, in which ethnic types and/or local trades are recorded in a colorful, but exacting, "documentary" style – would be popular with British audiences.  And indeed they were: According to the Magazine of Art, in its review of the January 1883 Exhibition of the Society♐ of British Artists, "Some careful and eminently successful studies of Eastern life and character, by Eugene and Philip [sic] Pavy, attract by their unobtrusive style, their thorough but neverthe🅷less artistic treatment of details, and their marked richness and variety of colour" (p. 10). (Philippe had exhibited at this venue since 1874; between 1878 and 1881, his works could be found at the Royal Academy as well.) 

In a Courtyard, Tangier would certainly have earned like praise: from the feathers of the preening pigeons to the accurate rendition of traditional mashrabiyyah woodwork and the delicate carvings of the  fountain, positioned on the right, Pavy's work exhibits those formal qualities which British audiences so admired.  So too, the composition of this particular painting may have struck a resonant chord: Some years before, William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) had exhibited his astonishing Afterglow in Egypt (circa 1854-63, Southampton Art Gallery), featuring a monumental Egyptian fellaha (peasant woman) amidst a flock of pecking pigeons. (The works of the esteemed artist Fredric Leighton [1830-1896], whose professional circles may have mirrored the Pavys' own, are also noteworthy as well: heavily draped odalisques and scenes of North African courtyards share Pavy's unusual palette of smoldering oranges,💦 earth tones, and pale, turquoise blues.)  It may be no coincidence, given the many affinities 🃏of Pavy's painting with the tastes and trends of British Orientalism, that the artist chose to sign this work "Philip" - the English version of his name.

The appeal of In a Courtyard, Tangier, would not have been limited to London audiences alone.  The subtle sensuality of the female figure, rare in Pavy's oeuvre, aligns it with the traditions of French Orientalism as well.  (In the late 1880s, Pavy would exhibit at the Sociétié des Artistes Français; his best known work at this venue was Bride Arriving in a Village, Biskra, Algeria, painted in 1889.)  The girl's posture, arms raised and hips tilted, recalls a series of images by French painters, in which odalisques bask in opulent harem interiors and dancing girls perform.  (Additionally, this pose connects Pavy's painting to photographs from the period, in which local women are suggestively posed. It is possible that Pavy, like his brother Eugène, based some of his Orientalist paintings on photographic prints, rather than sketches done on site.) The downcast eyes and sober expression of Pavy's subject, however, add a wrinkle to this theme: is this really an exotic temptress, or is it simply a tired girl, stretching as she waits? 𓄧;  It is precisely this ambiguity – between objective description and seductive appeal - that gives Pavy's work its international charm.

This catalogue note was written by 𓃲Dr. Emily M. Weeks.