  About the Artwork
  
  
  The Calenders was inspired by Edward Lane’s nineteenth-century translation of a collection of traditional Arabic stories, dating back to the medieval period, called “The Thousand and One Nights.” Three princes disguised as Calenders (a Sufic order of wandering mendicant dervishes), who each had but one eye, shaven chins, and thin, twisted mustaches, entertain a group of Baghdad ladies with tales of their recent misfortunes. Mowbray also worked interchangeably with Greek, Oriental, and Italian Renaissance themes. Regardless of time or place, Mowbray sought to create an aesthetic ambience for his exotic subjects.
  
  
  Title
  The Calenders
  
  
  Artwork Date
  1889
  
  Artist
  Henry Siddons Mowbray
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1858-1928
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  American
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Unframed: 9 1/4 × 18 1/8 inches (23.5 × 46 cm)
  Framed: 22 5/8 × 31 1/2 × 3 3/16 inches (57.5 × 80 × 8.1 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  American Art before 1950
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Beatrice W. Rogers Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  1984.24
  
  
  Copyright
  Copyright Not Evaluated
