A Bedouin Man

Date

c. 1895

Description

Creator of the image: Anna Clémence Berthe Abraham Worms
Date of the image creation: c. 1895
Medium of the image: Oil on canvas
Person depicted: A Bedouin man

A Bedouin man is depicted in the late-nineteenth-century style of orientalist painting. The Bedouin are a semi-nomadic pastoral people descended from people who inhabited the Arabian and Syrian deserts, with the word ‘Bedouin’ meaning ‘desert dweller’ in Arabic.

Viewed from slightly below, this man looks to the left, with his bright eyes fixed on something that seems to draw his interest. There is an anticipatory expression on his bearded face. Fine Art America and AliExpress now sell his face on greeting cards, throw pillows and shower curtains. The original painting is held in the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo.

The painter, Anna Clémence Berthe Abraham Worms (1868–1937), known as Berthe Worms, was born in France to a Jewish family and moved to Brazil in 1892 where she spent the rest of her days mostly living in Sao Paulo as a practicing artist and teacher of art. Why a French woman living in Brazil painted a Middle Eastern Bedouin is hard to fathom.

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