Built up over five decades, the collection draws on artists from France, Italy, Russia, Austria, the United Kingdom and the United States, a geographic range that mirrors the movement’s vast reach across the 19th century art world.
Across the collection, a consistent set of subjects appears. Rudolf Ernst reconstructs opulent interiors with meticulous academic precision, while Fabio Fabbi captures the energy and atmosphere of courtyards and terraces through impressionistic brushwork. Léon Comerre returns to the odalisque as a recurring figure, echoed in the work of Vincent Stiepevich, where music and leisure unfold within carefully staged interiors. Franz-Xaver Kosler offers a quieter counterpoint, a figure rendered with a directness that sits in contrast with the imagined and staged scenes. Théodore Frère engages with open landscapes and desert horizons, while Aloysius O’Kelly’s market scene brings the essence of daily life into focus.
The works brought together in the Bassam Freiha Collection reflect the recurring subjects that came to define Orientalist painting across the 19th and early 20th centuries. Shaped by travel, collected objects and studio invention, they document a sustained Western fascination with the East, one that produced imagery of enduring visual power.
