Spinning Yarn by Rudolf Ernst

Rudolf Ernst
1854-1932 | Austrian

Spinning Yarn

Signed and dated “R. Ernst 86” (lower right)
Oil on panel

Austro-French Orientalist painter Rudolf Ernst showcases his aptitude for the genre in this skillfully executed oil on panel. In it, two exotically dressed women and a child spin thread in the midst of an incredibly detailed interior in the Moorish style. The extravagance of the scene, coupled with Ernst’s robust color palette and overall grace and dexterity make this an eloquent specimen of 19th-century Orientalist art.

Ernst was born in Vienna to architectural painter Leopold Ernst. He began his artistic training at the Vienna Academy before settling in France where he began exhibiting his paintings at the Salon des Artistes Francais. Ernst first became interested in Orientalist themes in the 1880s following his travels through Moorish Spain, Constantinople, Tunis, Egypt and Morocco. He became enamored with the cultures and aesthetics of these destinations, incorporating them into his artworks and his personal life. He decorated his home in Fontenay-aux-Roses, France in the Ottoman taste and is even said to have painted while wearing a tarboosh, an Eastern tasseled cap.

Dated 1886

Panel: 22 1/2" high x 18 3/8" wide
Frame: 34 1/4" high x 30 1/2" wide