(Vienna 1864–1905)
A Market Scene in Cairo, signed Franz Kosler, oil on canvas, 90.5 x 132 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection, Austria, for two generations.

In 1884, after graduating from the General School of Painting, Franz Xaver Kosler was accepted at the Special School of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts under the direction of the well-known Oriental painter Leopold Carl Müller. This admission was a great honour for the young artist, for Leopold Carl Müller was known to be an extremely selective professor who only admitted 37 students in his 14 years as head of school. However, Kosler had to interrupt his studies shortly after beginning his training in order to support his family financially. In the following years, he devoted himself mainly to portrait painting and to earning a living as a freelance artist.
His first trip to Cairo was in 1892 to execute a portrait commission from Archbishop Porphyrini of Sina. It is unclear who arranged this commission and thus made the journey possible for Kosler, but it is likely that Leopold Carl Müller was a major supporter. From then on Kosler devoted himself almost exclusively to Oriental painting. He travelled to Egypt almost every year during the winter months and made a name for himself as an artist. He received portrait commissions, among them from Prince Said Pasha Halim, grandson of Mohammed Ali and future Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire. His patrons also included Archduke Ferdinand Karl and Countess Palffy-Schlippenbach. As a result of his annual trips to Egypt, he produced studies and scenes of everyday Egyptian life, most of which were sent directly to London to be sold to collectors there. Kosler was not only highly regarded in Cairo, but also exhibited at the Vienna Kunsthalle, the Glaspalast in Munich and the Royal Academy in London.

The present lot depicts a lively, sunny market scene at the edge of Cairo's old town, with the dome of the Sultaniyya Mausoleum stretching into the background. In the middle of the bustling marketplace sits a melon seller to whom a customer holds out coins in his hand. Behind him, two men pause to check the transaction and, if necessary, to assist the kneeling gentleman, who appears to be blind. To the right, a boy squats on the ground with clay pots while behind him a man leads loaded donkey through the crowd. The heat of the sun can almost be felt and seen in the shimmering air and in the deep shadows of the robes. Franz Xaver Kosler's skills as a draughtsman, colourist and also as a sensitive portraitist are clearly evident in this large-scale of work. This genre painting from a private Austrian collection is a rediscovery and joins the ranks of other compositional masterpieces in the artist's oeuvre, such as the "Vegetable Vendor in Cairo" (Christie's, London, 20 June 2002), "the Jugglers" (formerly in the Najd Collection), and "Merchants at a Market" (Christie's, London, 9 July 2009, lot 33).