Lot 105: Woldemar Friedrich (German, 1846-1910) Street scene in Hyderabad, Pakistan

Street scene in Hyderabad, Pakistan
signed with initials 'WF' and dated '90' (lower left)
oil on canvas
66 x 50cm (26 x 19 11/16in).

A preliminary watercolour sketch for the present lot was illustrated in Die Kunst Unserer Zeit (Munich, 1886, vol VII, no.81). The work was reviewed as follows:

"In his meticulously executed and scenic painting, W. Friedrich depicted one of the main streets of Haidarabad leading from the British Minister’s residence to the city itself. In the foreground is a splendid Indian construction with elaborate turrets rising upwards, with the colourful, extraordinarily diverse and flamboyant Haidarabad street life below. The streets are populated with pedestrians of all races, litters with gentry and women, ox-drawn carriages, elegant vehicles with spectacular animals, servants and drovers in amongst buffalos, camels and elephants. In amongst the crowds one can see many armed people, which one does not usually see in Indian cities." (Ibid., translated from the German)

Friedrich was born in Saxony and studied in Berlin and Weimar. In 1887 he was invited by Duke Ernst Guenther von Schleswig-Holstein to accompany him on a six-month journey to India, which took in Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad among other places. Upon his return to Germany, Friedrich painted a number of oils based on his earlier studies.