Ferdinand Max Bredt's Leisure of the Odalisques starred as top lot in an auction of Old Masters and Art of the 19th Century in Munich on April 26.
 Bredt's Leisure of the Odalisques |
The seductive artwork sold for €100,040. The piece, which was reportedly bought by an English bidder, showed a 150% increase against its €30,000-40,000 estimate.
The term "odalisques" comes from the Turkish for chamber maid, and the two young ladies depicted in the scene would have formed part of the imperial harem of an Ottoman emperor. The captivating painting shows the pair at rest, the first lounging idly in the foreground, gazing enticingly at the viewer.
Ferdinand Max Bredt was one of the main exponents of the Orientalist movement, which focuses its subject matter on the Middle East, with the works depicting aspects of various cultures and landscapes.
Bredt's work continues to command excellent results at auction, with his In a Courtyard, Tunis, bringing £601,250 at Christie's in 2009. The piece is considered a masterpiece of the Orientalist genre, which has recently enjoyed success at Sotheby's, with its Turkish and Islamic Week witnessing superb results.
The Munich sale also featured an angelic item from Franz Kadlik. His dream-like 1830 oil on panel work, Drei Engel sold for €27,500 to a Czech bidder.
You can read more from the Munich sale here, with coverage of the Modern Art auction on April 27.
