Artwork
An Arab Rider on Camelback
An Arab Rider on Camelback is a chalk drawing by the Romanticist artist Hippolyte Lalaisse. It dates from 1840 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
An Arab Rider on Camelback is a drawing executed in black chalk with white heightening on blue paper, attributed to the French artist Hippolyte Lalaisse and dated to around 1840.
Technique & Style
The work combines the dense, expressive lines of black chalk with selective white highlights that emphasize the rider and the camel’s form against the cool blue ground, a method typical of mid‑nineteenth‑century academic drawing practices.
Subject & Meaning
The composition depicts a solitary Arab figure astride a camel, suggesting a scene of travel or desert passage, reflecting contemporary European fascination with Oriental subjects.
History & Provenance
Created circa 1840, the drawing belongs to Lalaisse’s oeuvre of travel‑related studies; its subsequent ownership and exhibition history remain undocumented in the available records.
Artist & collection
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Portrait of a Procurator [verso]