The Sahlab Vendor, Cairo is an 1866 Orientalist painting by Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch.
Analysis of The Sahlab Vendor, Cairo
Ludwig Deutsch was an Austrian painter working in Paris in the 19th-century tradition of Orientalism which The Sahlab Vendor, Cairo is a great example of. This 1866 picture was painted after his first Middle Eastern trip in 1885.
Sahlab is a flour derived from the tuber of the orchid and is used in Africa and elsewhere as a refreshing drink or in desserts. A peaceful and mundane relationship exists between the people of different races in the picture, from the fellah to the dark-skinned Nubian man drinking in the doorway. The documentary nature of the picture is enhanced by Deutsch’s near-photographic Realism.
Ludwig Deutsch’s The Sahlab Vendor, Cairo is in a private collection.