Page 121 - Orient Collection

54. Entrance of the Palace of Amber

Artist: Edwin Lord WEEKS, American, (1849 - 1903)
Execution date (approximate): 1887
Téchnique: Oil on Canvas (signed lower left)
Measures: 51 x 76 cm.
Description: An extravagant architectural painting by of the Palace of Ambar in Rajahstan
India, With the white marble pavillon and the main palace façade painted in dark ochre,
reflects Lord Weeks characteristic pictorial construction and attention to detail as well
as his deft of handling of light, shadow and reflection. In the center of this work, we can
see Weeks “ghosting in” of figures. Some artists visited only main ports of call, picking
safer routes and staying closer to home. WEEKS made far more ambitious trips, From the
Black Sea to Persia and India.He was among the rarest artists to visit India and paint its
splendorous architectures among which, The Palace of Amber.

Exhibition
Royal Academy of Arts in London, in 1878, 1880, Dictionary of Contributors and their work
from its foundation in 1769 to 1904,Vol. VIII, p.196.

Publications
Will be included in the new Catalogue raisonné in preparation of Dr. Ellen K.Morris (PhD).

Biography
Weeks was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1849. His parents were affluent spice and tea
merchants from Newton, a suburb of Boston, and as such they were able to finance their son’s
youthful interest in painting and travelling. As a young man Weeks visited the Florida Keys to
draw, and also travelled to Surinam in South America. His earliest known paintings date from
1867 when he was eighteen years old, although it is not until his Landscape with Blue Heron, dated
1871 and painted in the Everglades, that Weeks started to exhibit a dexterity of technique and
eye for composition—presumably having taken professional tuition. In 1872 Weeks relocated to
Paris, becoming a pupil of Léon Bonnat and Jean-Léon Gérôme. After his studies in Paris, Weeks
emerged as one of America’s major painters of Orientalist subjects. Throughout his adult life
he was an inveterate traveler and journeyed to South America (1869), Egypt and Persia (1870),
Morocco (frequently between 1872 and 1878), and India (1882-83). In 1895 Weeks wrote and
illustrated a book of travels, From the Black Sea through Persia and India, and in 1897 he published
Episodes of Mountaineering. Weeks died in Paris in November 1903. He was a member of the
Légion d‘Honneur, France, an officer of the Order of St. Michael, Germany, and a member of the
Munich Secession. In 1877 , he had an important exhibition in Boston, which was a big success,
and his sales financed his trips to India. He went to India in 1883 ( to Benares), stayed 2 years,
and came back to Paris. He met in Paris his fellow American Painter F. A. Bridgman (who worked
with J. L. Gérome, also Henri Tanner, and became good friends). He died early in 1903 following a
disease contracted during his trip to India. He has transmitted to us a very true vision of the past
in his paintings. His paintings are found in almost all Museum of the United States of America.

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