Philip Zilcken (1857-1930)
Oasis in Biskra / Evening in Biskra
Oil on canvas on board
Signed bottom right
26.3 x 32.4 cm
Frame: 37 x 43 cm

Provenance:
Private collection, Leiden

Extra Information:
Charles Louis Philippe Zilcken, known as Philip, was a Dutch orientalist and writer. His artistic career was marked by a strong fascination with North Africa, which, alongside artists such as Marius Bauer and Hendrik Haverman, established him as a leading Dutch orientalist of his time.

Zilcken began his art education after completing his secondary school at the Gymnasium Haganum, where he studied at the Drawing Academy in The Hague under Karel Klinkenberg and Anton Mauve. Zilcken was a co-founder of the Dutch Etching Club and served as art editor for Elsevier's Geïllustreerd Maandschrift from 1896 to 1905.

Zilcken was actively involved in Dutch artist associations and was a member of the French Société des Peintres Orientalistes. His artistic achievements were recognized with various awards and honors, and his influence extended beyond the Netherlands as he gained international recognition for his essays on contemporary Dutch art, published in Dutch, French, and English.

Zilcken's Orientalist period began in February 1883, inspired by the travel accounts of the Goncourt brothers about their time in Algiers. His travel experiences in North Africa were documented in the book Drie maanden in Algiers, in which he described his first visit to the region. During a stay in Egypt in 1914, where he initiated the creation of a Musée d'Art Orientaliste, Zilcken produced the book Reisindrukken, illustrated with twelve of his etchings.

During his travels in Algeria, Zilcken also visited Biskra. En plein air, he painted this oasis at twilight, capturing the strong light-dark contrasts. On the back of the painting, the artist wrote the title Avond te Biskra ("Evening in Biskra") and noted the crate number in which the painting was shipped from North Africa to the Netherlands.

Zilcken's Oriental works, ranging from oil paintings to pastels and etchings, demonstrate his particular attention to Eastern architecture and nature, with people often playing a subordinate role. His sketchy approach to Oriental graphics, drawn on-site and printed in reddish-brown ink, was characterized by his technical skill. This work was highly successful during his lifetime, with exhibitions in New York in 1892 and the publication of a special Oriental Number of La Gazette de Hollande in 1911.