The cemetery in Algeria held a particular fascination for Bridgman and he depicted it a number of times, both in large Salon paintings and in smaller compositions which were often variants of these larger scenes. In a 1926 letter in which the artist included a photograph of the present painting, Bridgman offered it for sale to one of his collectors. He wrote at the time that this work was related to the Salon painting he exhibited in 1921 and mentioned that he would change some of the details of the work if the collector requested. The 1921 Salon picture, entitled Le Vendredi, jour des femmes, cimetiere de Bou-Kobrine, Alger, differs from the present canvas in the arrangement of the foreground. In that work the artist included a group of seated figures which in the present work has been replaced by the single standing figure looking out at the viewer next to the open burial plot.
We are grateful to Ilene Susan Fort, PhD., Curator Emerita, American Art Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art for her assistance with cataloguing this work and for confirming its authenticity on the basis of a photograph. She will include this work in her forthcoming Frederick Arthur Bridgman catalogue raisonné.