(Stibbe 1846–1927 Berlin)
“Die Alabastermoschee in Kairo” [The Alabaster Mosque in Cairo], verso old title and inscription, dated, signed 1883 Ernst Koerner,
oil on canvas, 87 x 127 cm, framed, frame damaged (Rei)

Provenance:
Auction Rudolf Lepke, Berlin, 17. December 1889;
Unknown Collection;
Dorotheum Vienna, 24. February 1942, lot 102;
Private Collection, Germany.

Catalogued in:
Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus 1979, vol. I, 2, p. 779, no. 66.

Carl Ernst Koerner specialized in landscape painting, with frequent travel being a helpful tool for the development of his themes. His first study trips to Northern France and the Baltic Sea taking place in 1868. In the following years he travelled to Italy, England and Scotland. His interaction with Egyptian art and the world of Islam, which he came across in 1873 on his first trip to the Orient, had a substantial impact on his artistic work. He explored additional areas of the Arab peninsula as part of three further extended voyages, which took him to Egypt, Syria, Palestine and Constantinople. In 1882, he observed and studied the association between European art and Islamic art at the Alhambra in Spain. He is among the representatives of the oriental fashion, which sought to depict the exotic in great detail and bring oriental customs and practice into the image itself. One key attribute of his work is how it captures an impression of nature, which he reproduces using highly refined technique.