Otto Pilny (28 June 1866 – 22 July 1936) was a

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painter who specialized in Orientalist genre scenes.

Life and career

Born in Budweis in 1866, his family moved to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 1873, and he presumably received his artistic education there; but the details are unknown. He took his first painting trip to the Orient when he was nineteen, and travelled the caravan route from

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

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, accompanied only by his dog. After a brief stay in Prague, he was back in Egypt from 1889 to 1892. Following a short stay in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, probably to continue his studies, he moved to Zürich in 1895, married and received Swiss citizenship. His first exhibition was in 1900. While in Egypt his work had pleased the Ottoman authorities in Egypt and he was appointed a Court Painter. In 1906, the last

Khedive Khedive (, ota, خدیو, hıdiv; ar, خديوي, khudaywī) was an honorific title of Persian origin used for the sultans and grand viziers of the Ottoman Empire, but most famously for the viceroy of Egypt from 1805 to 1914.Adam Mestyan"Kh ...

Abbas Hilmi II Abbas II Helmy Bey (also known as ''ʿAbbās Ḥilmī Pāshā'', ar, عباس حلمي باشا) (14 July 1874 – 19 December 1944) was the last Khedive ( Ottoman viceroy) of Egypt and Sudan, ruling from 8January 1892 to 19 December 191 ...

awarded him the

Order of the Medjidie Order of the Medjidie ( ota, نشانِ مجیدی, August 29, 1852 – 1922) is a military and civilian order of the Ottoman Empire. The Order was instituted in 1851 by Sultan Abdulmejid I. History Instituted in 1851, the Order was awarded in fi ...

, 4th class. Like many of his contemporaries, Pilny was captivated by the North African landscape, people as well as their customs. He was particularly interested in the

Bedouins The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arabs, Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert ...

and often travelled with them into the desert where he could sketch the evening entertainments. His experiences in North Africa provided the inspiration for his paintings for the rest of his life, and he was one of only a few Orientalist painters who depicted

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

s in prayer.Bonham's Auction House, "Otto Pliny Biographical Notes
/ref> Pilny died in 1936 in Zurich. His son, Otto Alexander (22 March 1897 – 17 March 1958) was also a painter of Zürich, but specialized in

vedute A ''veduta'' (Italian for "view"; plural ''vedute'') is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting or, more often, print of a cityscape or some other vista. The painters of ''vedute'' are referred to as ''vedutisti''. Origins This genre ...

. His works have often been incorrectly attributed to his father.

Select list of paintings

Gallery

File:Otto Pilny - Dancing at Sunset-21899604228.jpg, ''Dancing at Sunset'' File:Otto Pilny Morning Prayers.jpg, ''Morning Prayers'' File:Otto Pilny Orientalischer Basar.jpg, ''Oriental Bazaar'' File:Otto Pilny Sklavenhändler.jpg, ''Slave Dealer'' (1919)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pilny, Otto 19th-century Swiss painters Swiss male painters 20th-century Swiss painters 1866 births 1936 deaths Orientalist painters People from České Budějovice 19th-century Swiss male artists 20th-century Swiss male artists Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to Switzerland