Lot 284: FRANÇOIS-THÉOPHILE-ETIENNE GIDE, FRENCH 1822-1890

signed

74.5x60.5cm.; 29 1/2 x24in.

oil on canvas

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ESTATE

The scene is of a recitation or incantation in a Sufi lodge. Some of the dervishes have the classic high felt hat (but not the white robe) of the Mehlevi order and have their arms crossed in front of them. They are reciting pious phrases and invoking the name of Allah. The style of the architecture is generic late Ottoman and the scene was probably observed in Constantinople, though such lodges also existed in Syria, Egypt and other Ottoman provinces including the Balkans.