Lot 2396 Nα

Ettore Simonetti belongs to a large Roman family of artisans and artists in the second half of the 19th century. He and his brother Attilio admired the Spanish painter Mariano Fortuny, who lived in Venice, and, like him, were interested in textiles of all kinds, collecting carpets, damask and silk fabrics as well as oriental ceramics. Although Ettore apparently never travelled to the north of Africa, he loved to paint bazaar scenes with the typical traders and hagglers of the Orient together with their exotic clothing and the objects that were sold in this region.
This painting can be seen as the counterpart of a work by Ettore Simonetti entitled The Carpet Dealer (67 x 90 cm), which was auctioned in London in 2008 (Christie's 2.7.2008, estimate 70,000/100,000 GBP, hammer price 553,000 GBP). The setting of both compositions, with the ladies seated on the left being offered their wares over mint tea, together with the lively bustle in the bazaar and the view of the oriental city centre, are very similar: there the customers are presented with carpets, here it is a richly decorated amphora vase.