Charles Wilda (Austrian, 1854–1907)

In the present work, Charles Wilda frames the deep concentration towards the game being played out in the centre of the composition, with various narratives, including the pouring of drink and smoking, to bring movement to the scene.
A pupil of the celebrated Orientalist painter Léopold Carl Müller, Wilda, like Ludwig Deutsch, trained at the Wiener Akademie der Bildenen Künste. Carl Müller encouraged Wilda to travel to Egypt, whilst imparting the techniques of fine academic painting. Wilda established a studio in Cairo and in Paris with his friend Arthur von Ferraris in the 1880’s, when the present lot was painted. Wilda exhibited his Orientalist paintings in Vienna, Munich and Paris. He participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 where he was awarded a bronze medal.