Lot 190: E. Baily Hilda , Austrian active late 19th/early 20th century Tigers at a Temple Entrance oil on panel

signed E. Hilda (lower left) oil on panel

measurements 18 by 21 5/8 in. alternate measurements 45.7 by 55.5 cm

Private Collection, Florida (until circa 1950)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

The subject of Hilda's arresting work follows a long tradition in Orientalist painting. In the early 1830s, Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) had accompanied the animalier Antoine-Louis Barye (1796-1875) to the Jardine des Plantes in Paris, in order to sketch the newest addition to their menagerie - a Bengal tiger from India. These studies served Delacroix well in a series of vigorous oil paintings created soon after his transformative journey to North Africa, in which tigers are portrayed in the midst of struggle or strife.υ In the 1870s and 1880s, the eminently market-savvy French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) created a highly successful series of pictures of lions, tigers, and leopards in varying sizes and qualities, to suit nearly every taste and economic class. (Like Delacroix, Gérôme made studies in his youth at the Jardin des Plantes, which aided him in this endeavor.) Hilda's Austrian compatriot Rudolf Ernst (1854-1932) painted several tiger subjects during his career as well. Though there is no evidence of a relationship between the two artists, it is probable that Hilda knew Ernst's work. In Hilda's interpretation of the tiger theme, an intriguing architectural element has been added. The columns of the temple in the background recall those of the Sri Ranganathaswamy (Vishnu) Temple, Sriranga, Tamil Nadu, India. (The creamy white underbellies and narrow black stripes of the tigers in Hilda's painting confirm that they are Bengals, making the reference to India particularly apt.) Though Hilda probably never went to the exotic locale portrayed in this work, relying instead on contemporary photographs (and an active imagination), he clearly had a penchant for the subject: a watercolor depicting two resting tigers also bears his name (lot 189). This catalogue note was written by Dr. Emily M. Weeks. Please note this work will be sold unframed.