Object Description
Large Orientalist Oil Painting of Jerusalem by W. J. Appler, 1919
British, Early 20th century
Canvas: Height: 63cm, width 92cm, depth 2cm
Frame: Height 91cm, width 119cm, depth 8cm
This compelling Orientalist oil on canvas depicts a panoramic view of Jerusalem from the surrounding Judean hills, signed, dated and situated lower left ‘Jerusalem / W J Appler / 1919’. The composition is panoramic in conception and confident in execution, capturing Jerusalem’s famous walled skyline spread across the middle distance beneath an immense cerulean sky of remarkable luminosity. The ancient Ottoman walls of the Old City extend across the full width of the canvas in warm tones of rose and ochre, the distinctive blue dome of the Dome of the Rock rising above the Temple Mount to anchor the composition, flanked by the white mass of the city’s rooftops, minarets and domes stretching to the horizon. The surrounding Judean hills are rendered in broad, assured strokes of warm brown and sandy earth, punctuated by dark cypress and olive trees that lead the eye upward through the middle ground toward the city walls.
The foreground is animated with vivid Orientalist detail. To the right, a large Bedouin encampment is established beneath a spreading tree, the boldly striped black and white goat-hair tent accompanied by a smaller white pavilion with decorative blue and gold banding. Resting camels draped in richly coloured saddlecloths and woven textiles of red, orange and blue are spread across the sandy ground beside scattered baggage and provisions. To the left, two standing figures in traditional Arab robes, one bearing a long lance or standard, converse beside a standing camel, while further figures and animals recline beyond them in a caravan stretching into the left distance.
The reverse of the stretcher bears a handwritten inscription — ‘To My Friend Lee Arnold, Jerusalem from Environs, W. J. Appler 1919’ — transforming the work from a topographical record into a deeply personal document. Painted as a gift for a named individual, the painting carries the warmth of a shared experience at a specific and extraordinary moment in history: Jerusalem in 1919, just two years after General Allenby’s entry into the city, when the ancient holy city stood at the threshold of a new era. That personal connection, artist to friend, witness to witness, lends the work a rarity and intimacy that no commission could replicate.
W. J. Appler was a British painter active in the early 20th century whose Orientalist works reflect the tradition of topographical and documentary painting that flourished amongst artists travelling in the Middle East during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The work is presented in a carved giltwood frame with egg-and-dart and foliate mouldings.