A stunning painting by Ludwig Deutsch (1855-1935) is expected to fetch as much as $1.82 million at an upcoming auction in London, UK. 

The Palace Guard is a powerful and noble evocation of the Egyptian world which the Austrian-born Orientalist painter first experienced for himself in 1883.

Signed and dated L Deutsch Paris/1893, it will be one of the highlights of Sotheby’s Orientalist Sale, which will be held in London on April 21 as part of its Orientalist & Islamic Week.

The painting carries a pre-sale estimate of £800,000 to £1.2 million ($1.22 million to $1.82 million).

In the painting, a Nubian sentry stands guard before a palace entrance, his stance on guard, his muscles taut and visible through his tight-fitting fine chain mail. His accoutrements and weapons are minutely observed: he wears a Safavid gold-overlaid steel helmet of the type made in Persia in the 18th century, along with a Safavid arm guard or Bazuband. 

In his breastplate, he carries, from left to right, a late 18th or early 19th-century Ottoman silver repoussé scabbard, jade-hilted dagger, and flintlock pistol or kubur. At waist level, he carries a 17th-century Ottoman ray-skin powder flask with applied silver mounts and ivory terminals. In his hands, he holds a late 18th-century Ottoman ivory-hilted sword or yataghan, and at his feet rests a Persian steel shield, probably Safavid, of the 17th century. 

The minute detail and hallucinatory realism of the painting were founded on the extensive collection of photographs and objects Deutsch amassed in Cairo, which he synthesised into his paintings on his return to Paris, where he lived. 

His Egyptian subjects met with huge critical acclaim: in 1900, Deutsch was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle, and later the Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur from France.

Sotheby’s 2015 Orientalist Sale builds on the successes of its 2012, 2013, and 2014 sales, which established new auction records for works by painters and sculptors of the genre, including Ludwig Deutsch, Hermann Corrodi, Rudolf Weisse, and Ivan Aivazovsky. 

Once again, the sale will be a tightly curated auction with its own dedicated catalogue featuring masterpieces by leading European and American Orientalist painters and sculptors.