Following extensive conservation treatment, Egyptian Indigo Dyers by John Singer Sargent is once again on display at The Mesdag Collection. The painting is the only work by Sargent in a Dutch public collection. Technical examination carried out during conservation revealed new details, including an underlying composition and fingerprints along the edge of the painting.
Sargent painted Egyptian Indigo Dyers after travelling through Western Asia and North Africa in 1890 and 1891 in search of inspiration for murals in the Boston Public Library. In Egypt, his subjects included indigo dyers: craftspeople who practised a dyeing technique that was increasingly under pressure during the period of British colonial rule.
Hendrik Willem Mesdag and Sientje Mesdag-van Houten were particularly drawn to works with a sketch-like quality that reveal the artist’s working process, as in this painting by Sargent. They acquired the work between 1899 and 1902, possibly with the assistance of the Italian artist Antonio Mancini. Mancini was a friend of Sargent’s and also sold several works to the Mesdags.
