3-003-689 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"A Rehearsal, Cairo". By Carl Haag, in the exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water Colours, 1861. Engraving from a painting. 'This clever and artistic cabinet picture presents an interior of a coffee-shop at Cairo, in which are assembled a group of musicians rehearsing a new piece of music. The figures are full of character, aptly illustrating some of the varieties of race which live under the Mohammedan rule. The man with the long pipe is a capital figure; so, too, is that of the laughing negro with the timbrel; and that of the boy with the triangle. At the back of the apartment is an old Turk smoking a narghile, whose gravity contrasts well with the droll expression of the principal group. Those who know Mr. Haag's work may imagine with what careful and brilliant touch and fulness of colour he has finished all the details of this admirable little work, of which Mr. Wm. Leaf has become the purchaser'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.