(Hanau 1800–1882 Frankfurt am Main)
A Turkish Love Sign, signed, dated (in ligature) MOppenheim 1841,
oil on canvas, 63 x 46.5 cm, framed (frame damaged)

We are grateful to Erik Riedel, Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main, for his scientific assistance with cataloguing this work.

On a roof terrace, which offers a view over an oriental city in the evening light, a man sits cross-legged. His clothes, the carpets and the brass-coloured water pipe evoke an atmosphere of subtle luxury.
On closer inspection, action unfolds, in the upper right-hand corner a delicate hand appears behind a curtain. It seems to have just dropped the rose that lies in the foreground. Following this ‘sign of love’, the protagonist turns upwards and makes eye contact. His classic profile, full beard and deep black eyelashes attract the viewer’s attention and form the centre of the composition.

The Frankfurt painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim came from the Jewish bourgeoisie in the city of Frankfurt, which experienced an upswing and prosperity in the 19th century. He was one of the first Jewish painters to study at an art academy and move in the intellectual and artistic circles of his time. His portrait of Heinrich Heine and his genre cycle “Pictures from Old Jewish Family Life” are particularly well known. Orientalist motifs are rather rare in is oeuvre. However, a historical list of works compiled by the artist in 1880 mentions a painting titled “Turk at Whom a Rose Is Thrown” (catalogue raisonné v. 45). Twenty years later, Oppenheim’s heirs again compiled a kind of catalogue raisonné that also lists a painting entitled ‘A Turkish Sign of Love’ (Catalogue raisonné v. 46). It is very likely that one (or both) of the paintings may be the present lot.