| mystery.org |
| This curious painting by Adrien Henri Tanoux was sold unframed by Christie's on March 13, 2001 in New York for $10.545 USD. This almost humouristic painting, entitled "The next commission" seems to imply that things were going well in 1889, and that perhaps Orientalist paintings were earning good money (see the previous page for an 1887 example). |
| Now we look at a 1904 painting, I wonder if we could imagine that this is a snapshot of the home and life of H. Adrien Tanoux which is the way he signed some of his paintings. We see him now in a comfortable if not luxurious home surrounded with Orientalist relics, oriental carpets and or tapestry... this is exactly as we might imagine and when we consider that his favorite model of this period (shown at the bottom of the previous page) always had her hair attached in the same way as the woman in this picture... |
| Could this now be the same model a year later? One wonders about such a title, if this was your wife would you have given the painting such a title? Painting voluptious nude women who are not your wife may lead to problems... whatever happened Tanoux appears to have gone off to the farm and started painting rural subjects, that are a far cry from his harem beauties. At first I was tempted to think that he married his model and was at this time living comfortably from his painting. However perhaps the reality of his life was something different, I can imagine another scenario where Tanoux was forced to paint Orientalist Art because that is where the money was, he painted other subjects such as the revenders which must have been infinitely more work, but with a possibly more limited market value. This has often been the way for painters, they can't paint what they like because it won't earn them enough money, so they prostitute their skills to make money by painting what the public wants to see (and pay for). |
| I discovered this painting by Tanoux by accident searching "Tanoux 1892" with google where it can be found on www.gixcel.com. I have not framed it as it stands better on its own as a work of pure art, is this what Tanoux really wanted to paint, reality? If you zoom in on the high resolution image at Gixcel, you can see that Tanoux has even included a detail of a tear in this womans shirt where she has stiched it back together. |
| This painting sold for $25.000 USD at the Sotheby's 2009 auction, 19th Century European Art including Importnat British Paintings, New York, 22/10/2009. Lot 130. The auction detail states: signed in the lower left however we do not see it in their photo, nor is it dated. This is the kind of Orientalist painting that was very popular and we can perhaps speculate about the "reality" of this scene, while there is no doubt about the reality of "The Washer", "harem Beauty" may not be based on reality per se,... one wonders how we might handle the situation, if thrown by some magical circumstance into this room. Here then is the bread and butter of Tanoux. At the top of the page I was speculating on where or not "Taking Tea" was a snapshot of the home of Tanoux and now in retrospect i can imagine it is rather the home of a typical Tanoux client searching yet another Orientalist piece to add to his collection and decor. |
| This painting sold for $23.750 USD at the Sotheby's 2007 auction, 19th Century European Art , New York, 23/10/2007. Lot 186 |
| This painting is listed in the archives of Düsseldorfer Auktionshaus as sold at auction for 67.000 EUROS |
| I found this painting for sale on a Russian site for about 18.000 USD which seems an impossibly low price, not speaking Russian doesn/t help. |
| This painting was sold in 1998 by Christie's for $2.298 USD in their IMPRESSIONIST AND 19TH CENTURY PICTURES auction, London, South Kensington, 2 December 1998, Lot 283/Sale 8221. This would have been a very good investment for the buyer, as I think that today it may sell for a lot more. |
| On the next page we will look at some of the more eccentric Orientalist paintings by Adrien Henri Tanoux... |