Margaret Murray Cookesley

MARGARET MURRAY COOKESLEY (1844-1927)
"The Sultan's Darlings". 1894.
Oil on panel.
Signed and dated in the lower margin.
Measurements: 38 x 59 cm; 55 x 76 cm (frame).

The theme of the harem was profusely treated by this British painter, who visited Constantinople, and where the sultan commissioned a portrait of his son and wives, according to the historian Clara Erskine Clement. With precious technique, the author conveys the silky sumptuousness of the garments and the languor of the girls, lulled to sleep by hookah tobacco.

Margaret Murray Cookesley was an English painter. She traveled to the Middle East and painted oriental scenes in oil and watercolor. She exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Women Artists. She was awarded the Order of the Chefakat and the Medal of Fine Arts of the Ottoman Empire. Her work "Circe resplendens" (1913) is in the collection of the Glasgow Museums. Some of his paintings are in collections such as the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath (Frederick Harrison, Author); Towneley Hall, Burnley (The Gambler's Wife); the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (Cleopatra); the Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield (The Egg Seller); and Cartwright Hall, Bradford (Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore).