Arrival Of The Concubines

An Islamic city, possibly Istanbul on a moonlit night. A boat silently approaches a jetty, on board two new concubines are being delivered to the sultan. On the jetty a lone figure, the Head Eunuch of the Harem, waits by the lamplit pavilion for the boat to pull up to escort them to the palace. All is quiet apart from the gentle lapping of the water against the sides of the boat and the jetty.
I wanted to paint something atmospheric and Orientalist but to keep it as a landscape with just the small figures supplying the possible narrative. Atkinson Grimshaw is the main influence on this picture, the painter of moonlight par excellence. I based it on a red/orange - green/blue complementary colour axis, oil on linen 19 3/4" x 19 3/4". There is a step-by-step progress through this painting on earlier posts on this blog.