Page 95 - Orient Collection
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41. Sunset on the OASIS (Egypt)
Artist: Otto PILNEY Austrian, (1866 - 1936)
Execution date (approximate): 1904
Téchnique: Oil on Canvas, (signed lower right and dated)
Measures: 72 x 60 cm.
Description: A rare depiction of Pilney at the Sunset, with the breeze over the Oasis. A
Shepherd of camels at sunset in the Oasis.
An extremely rare subject for the painter O.Pilney.
Biography
Otto Pilney was an Austrian painter. His birth date is not sure and could be 1856 instead of
1866. He is a typical Orientalist painter. He studied in Prague in 1873, and then decided to
visit Herzegovina, where his brother was a responsible of the Austrian Army. His brother
advised him to travel to Egypt. He travelled firstly to Cairo (Egypt) around 1875, then
visited Tripoli (Lybia) and finally came back to Zurich. He was charmed and absorbed
by the light of the desert. During his travels he drew many scenes in order to be able to
paint them later in Zurich. He exhibited his Orientalist paintings in 1895-1898, and 1899
in Switzerland. In 1906 The King of Egypt, Abbas, who loved his paintings, Honored Otto
Pilney with the great Medal of Medjidije (an Order of Glory founded by the Sultan of Egypt
Abdul Medjid in 1851).
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