ÁFRICA LATENTE | Christa Zaat

Christa Zaat



Jean Discart (French painter) 1856 - 1944
The Cobbler, Tangiers, s.d.
oil on canvas
40 x 50 cm. (15.75 x 19.69 in.)
signed and inscribed 'J.DISCART TANGER' (lower right)
private collection

Catalogue Note Bonhams
The present lot is a typical example of the Jean Discart's highly detailed Orientalist paintings. Little is known about the life and career of this hugely talented artist. Although he later seems to have taken French nationality, Discart is variously recorded as being born in Modena in Italy, or in Vienna. In 1873, he enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where he studied history painting under the classicist Anselm Feuerbach (German 1829-1880).

Discart was a contemporary of Ludwig Deutsch (Austrian 1855-1935), and the two artists later travelled to Paris together where they were no doubt highly influenced by the French enthusiasm for Orientalism. Deutsch was to settle in Paris, as did another Viennese-trained Orientalist, Rudolf Ernst (Austrian 1854-1932). Discart initially returned to Vienna, where he continued his studies under another great Orientalist, Leopold Carl Müller (Austrian 1834-1892).

Discart first exhibited at the Paris Salon from 1884, and contributed works to Orientalist exhibitions up until 1920. While Deutsch favoured Cairo as a backdrop for his work, Discart favoured Morocco, frequently inscribing his work 'Tanger'.

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Jean Discart was born in the Italian city of Modena in 1856 and in 1873, at the age of seventeen, he enrolled in a history painting course at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts taught by the famous German classical painter Anselm Feuerbach. After Feuerbach retired from the Academy, Discart and his fellow students Ludwig Deutsch and Carl Merode applied to study under Leopold Carl Müller, who was made professor of the Academy following Feuerbach. They were refused admittance into Müller's class, which prompted Discart and Deutsch to travel to Paris (though Discart was admitted to Müller's class the next year). Discart's career is an interesting combination of these two influences: his classical training in Vienna under such revered master-painters, and his experiences with his contemporaries in the cosmopolitan Paris art world. He first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1884, but after that there is very little record of the remainder of his career. He painted Orientalist subjects through the 1920s, however, and judging from the inscription "Tanger" on many of his works, it seems possible that he visited the Moroccan city.