Dog Portrait of a Chihuahua 1896
Arthur von Ferraris (Hungarian, 1856-1936)
Signed and dated (1896) right side
Oil on cardboard
11 1/2 x 8 3/4 (17 x 14 1/4 frame) inches
Provenance: private collection Netherlands
Ferraris’ training as a portrait painter serves him in good stead in the highly detailed faces of his subjects. The attention to detail and virtuosity of brushwork which is so evident in his figures is also striking in the depiction of the architectural landscape which surrounds the figural group. Every detail of the intense observation of this particular sitter is minutely rendered and lends an aura of poignancy.
Arthur von Ferraris was born in Hungary and began his artistic career in Vienna as a student in his teens. His first instructor was the portraitist Joseph Matthaus Aigner and for a time the young artist made his living painting portraits. He did not stay long in Vienna however, in 1876 he left for Paris, like many of his compatriots, where he studied under Jules Lefebvre at the Académie Julian as well as Jean Léon Gérôme and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Both these instructors were advocates of classical educational methods, teaching students to draw first, and then to paint. Von Ferraris’ earlier training in Vienna provided him with a solid foundation, facilitating his smooth progress through his studies at the Ecole. He began exhibiting at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1881, just a year after beginning his studies with Gérôme.
Gérôme's influence is evident in the younger artist's interest in Muslim subjects set in Egypt, Turkey and North Africa. In the winter of 1885, Ferraris traveled to Egypt with Ludwig Deutsch, and images of the streets and denizens of that country, and particularly Cairo, became the artist's most celebrated and sought-after compositions. Ferraris learned much from his traveling companion, and his works compare favorably to the work of the great Austrian master in both technique and the artist's ability to portray faithfully aspects of everyday life in the Middle East. Undoubtedly Gérôme encouraged the trip as he so often did when students expressed an interest in Orientalist imagery.
Like Gérôme’s paintings, Ferraris’ images are meticulously detailed and almost photographic in its polished realism. Von Ferraris’ style is more intimate, however; he concentrates on what seems to be a portion of a larger scene, suggesting that the viewer is privileged to observe his unique point of view. The most apt comparison is to the work of Edgar Degas, whose spatial composition has been described as looking through a keyhole.
By the late 1880s, von Ferraris had set up a studio with another Orientalist painter, Charles Wilda, on the Boulevard de Clichy. He continued to paint society portraits—still a reliable source of income with wealthy clients who preferred the more prestigious oil portrait to the increasingly popular photographic print. These commissions, such as Young Girl in a White Dress, were painted with that unique sensitivity that characterizes a skilled portraitist, emphasizing the essential qualities of the personality while simultaneously highlighting all the best physical aspects of the sitter. Von Ferraris exhibited many of his society portraits at the annual Salon. In addition, many of his Orientalist paintings were regularly shown at the Salon throughout the late 1880s and early 1890s.
Ferraris kept a peripatetic lifestyle moving from various cities. Eventually settling in Vienna in 1894, his next fifteen years were increasingly busy and productive. From his Viennese home base, von Ferraris also exhibited in Düsseldorf, Munich and Berlin. He traveled frequently throughout the Middle East, returning to Egypt, but also exploring the lands around the Tigris-Euphrates river valley and Palestine. Significantly, his reputation as a society portraitist continued to bring steady, financially rewarding work from international clients. He received commissions in all of the European capitals, adding London, Stockholm and Rome to his already extensive client list. He also made several trips to New York City where he achieved a certain social status for having painted the portrait of John Davison Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil.