Léon BELLY (Attributed to) - The Arab warrior and his camel

Léon BELLY (Attributed to)
Saint-Omer, 1827 - Paris, 1877
Oil on canvas mounted on panel
45 x 37 cm (57 x 50 cm with frame)
Beautiful 19th century frame decorated with laurels

Léon Adolphe Auguste Belly was born in Saint-Omer. He developed an early talent for drawing and painting. He went to study with Constant Troyon in Paris, then he met Théodore Rousseau who led him to paint landscapes in Fontainebleau. He was therefore first part of the Barbizon School before pursuing a career as an orientalist painter.
Introduced to naturalism through his stays around Fontainebleau, Léon Belly was driven by “the sole concern of doing well for the pleasure of being true” (letter to his mother, January 1856). He always carried out numerous studies on the pattern.
In 1850 Léon Belly left for Egypt with the scientific mission led by Caignart de Saulcy, responsible for studying the historical geography of the Dead Sea basin. Then in 1855 and 1856, he made a second trip to Egypt in the company of Imer, Berchère, Bartholdi and Gérôme.
Our painting can be compared to a camel driver recently put up for sale at auction in Paris. The precise and descriptive drawing, the attention to descriptive detail and the sense of touch with material are the mark of a great master of orientalist painting. Lèon Belly often painted dromedaries and camels in a naturalistic style. The Tours museum has one – a “lying camel” – very similar in style to our painting. At Léon Belly, the painting becomes a documentary study with a precise and effective naturalism down to the smallest details, here in the mount of the camel and the beautiful portrait of the Arab warrior.

Ref: FW1TOFFDMS