Lot 2061 Dα

Carl Ludwig Jessen is primarily known for interior and genre scenes depicting his home of Friesland. He is still highly regarded today for his realistic and detailed works chronicling Frisian daily life in the late 19th century (cf. his work “Frisian Family Drinking Coffee” which was sold by Lempertz in November 2017). However, Jessen's repertoire was much larger than this, and he also left his home to train as an artist. He studied at the renowned Copenhagen Academy from 1856 to 1865, after which he travelled to Paris and Italy with a stipend from the Prussian government. Thus, his oeuvre also includes Parisian vedutas and café scenes, and Italian genre scenes and landscapes. This large-format Oriental scene is an excellent example of the artist's narrative paintings, which were frequently based on stories from the Bible. This work may depict Samson and Delilah, but since no scissors - the most important attribute of this Old Testament story - are present in the work, it could be interpreted as a harem scene.