Carl Fey, Portrait Of A Smoking Scholar, Interior Drawing Room, Germany, 19th Century, Düsseldorf

Carl Fey (Düsseldorf), The Scholar in His Interior – circa 1900. Carl (Oswald H.) Fey, a genre painter of the Düsseldorf School, active late 19th–early 20th century. A meticulously depicted interior scene: in the center, a seated scholar, wearing a red coat and a soft hat, reads a large folio volume while smoking a long clay pipe. He is positioned before a wide fireplace entirely lined with blue and white patterned tiles; on the mantelpiece, a row of Delft-style plates and vases, edged with green trim. In the hearth, a copper kettle heats. To the right, a dark, glazed sideboard is filled with glassware and pewter; a fabric lampshade hangs from the ceiling. To the left, a table holds a jug/pewter; in the background, a suite of rooms opens onto a second, bluish room with furniture and paintings, and flowers hang in the window. Walls punctuated with paintings, red tiled floor laid in a herringbone pattern; a heavy green curtain frames the scene on the right. Warm atmosphere, side lighting, and meticulous rendering of materials. Date: Circa 1890/1900. Technique and support: Oil on canvas. Signature/marks: Signed lower right: Fey. d. J. Stamp on the reverse: CARL FEY / OSWALD H. FEY / KUNSTMALER / DÜSSELDORF / CHARLOTTENSTR. 43 (with call number). Dimensions: Canvas: 57.5 × 45.5 cm. Overall dimensions with frame: 66 × 54 cm. Period giltwood frame with rounded molding; good condition.