London - The fascination of European artists with Arabian culture during the 19th century was not confined to any one part of the continent. Painters from many different European nations flocked to the Middle East, producing work for western consumption that depicted people and places about which little was then known or understood in their home countries. The vast body of art which resulted is now referred to universally as Orientalist Art. Bonhams 66-lot Orientalist Art sale in London on Wednesday 20 October offers works from all over Europe including France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Denmark, Poland and Germany. It is led by Calling the Faithful by the Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch, which is estimated at £300,000-500,000.

Deutsch (1855-1935) is considered as the leading painter of the second wave of Oriental Art. His meticulously painted images of Arab men at prayer or, as here, silhouetted or placed just in front of the doorway of an Egyptian religious school or mosque, were particularly successful, finding ready buyers in Paris, London, New York, and Cairo –markets that continue to highly value Deutsch's works today.

Bonhams director of 19th Century Art and Curator of the Orientalist Art sale, Peter Rees, said: "Little is known about Deutsch's life – few biographical details have survived – but he lives on through his exceptional work. His paintings from the 1890s were the most successful of his career – he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1892 – and in Calling the Faithful, painted the following year, we can see all the elements that went to make his work so powerful and timelessly appealing."

Other highlights of the sale include:

• Marketplace at the Entrance to a Bazaar, Constantinople by the Italian painter Alberto Pasini (1826-1899). Pasini is among the finest Italian Orientalist painters, skilfully capturing the architecture, colours and atmosphere of North African and Asia Minor. Born in Parma and educated at the city's Accademia di Belle Arti, he moved to Paris in 1851. Pasini would either paint from memory or elaborate on the wealth of drawings and notes that he rapidly executed on site during his travels. Orientalist compositions formed the bulk of his work from the late 1870s to the mid-1880s. Estimate: £120,000-180,000.

• A Harem Interior by the French painter Henry Schlesinger (1814-1893). A typically sumptuous work by an artist who, though born in Germany made his home in Paris for most of his life. In 1836 he visited Istanbul, where he was commissioned to paint several portraits of the sultan, Mahmud II. This visit was to provide Schlesinger with the material on which he drew throughout his career, well after he had returned to Paris. The exotic theme of the painting and the exquisite texture of the drapery would greatly have appealed to his contemporary Parisian audience. Estimate: £60,000-80,000.

• A Negotiation by Adam Styka (1890-1959). Son of a prominent Polish painter, Styka made an immediate impression with his first exhibition in 1913 of paintings of North African subjects, specifically of Algerian and Tunisian sun-drenched people and landscapes. They caused such as sensation that he was instantly proclaimed as the 'Painter of the Sun'. A Negotiation epitomes Styka's Orientalist works. Estimate: £40,000-60,000.

• A Turkish capriccio by the Belgian artist Simon-Joseph-Alexandre Denis (1755-1812). Painted in 1790 a year after the French Revolution, this painting dates from a very different era of Orientalist painting. The extraordinary subject, depicting a Turkish riverside scene envisaged in neoclassical taste, crisply detailed with camels walking over a bridge and figures taking coffee and smoking chibouk pipes, is unique in the artist's oeuvre. Estimate: £30,000-50,000.

5 October 2021