Orientalism in 19th Century Art

Study for “Portrait of an Indian”

• Anne Louis-Girodet Trioson, 1807, Oil on canvas

• A highly finished oil sketch that served as a preliminary modello for a portrait now in the Musee Girodet

  • that piece was sold in the auction of Girodet’s studio, catalogued Portrait of an Indian, dated 1807

  • However, the costume is Ottoman, not Indian

• Girodet was one of the most gifted students of David, returning to Paris in 1795 after his time at the French Academy

  • his style was marked by his literary knowledge, effects, and exoticism

Odalisque in Grisaille

• Ingres, 1824-34, Oil on Canvas

• An unfinished piece inspired by the Grande Odalisque of 1814 (Louvre), re-imagined as a Middle Eastern concubine in a harem

  • Ingres viewed this as an ideal beauty, and continued to paint nudes like this until the 1860s, by which he had more followers

• Paintings in gray like this (en grisaille) were often made for engravers to reproduce paintings in prints, but the purpose for this work is uncertain

Royal Tiger

• Delacroix, 1829, Lithograph

• Delacroix was fascinated by the natural world and animals, but never really encountered untamed ones, even during his visit to Morocco in 1832

  • he relied on the Paris zoo, and began studying felines in the 1820s

• This picture demonstrates the Romantic desire for tragedy, torment and violence in scenes that show nature ‘red in tooth and claw'

  • this is some decades before Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (1859)

Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Preciada, One of their Daughters

• Delacroix, 1832, Watercolor over graphite

• Delacroix produced this on a trip to North Africa in 1832, accompanying his friend Count de Mornay on his mission as a good-will ambassador to the Sultan of Morocco, Abd-er-Rahman II

  • Abraham Ben-Chimol was assigned as their dragoman (interpreter, especially for Arabic, Turkish or Persian countries), from Tangiers and Jewish

  • he introduced them to his wife and daughter, pictured in her bridal attire

    • in Delacroix’s journal, he described the Jewish wedding in detail when he attended on February 21st, 1832

The Natchez

• Eugene Delacroix, 1823 and 1835, Oil on canvas

• Delacroix painted this scene from Chateaubriand’s famous Romantic novel Atala, which tells the fate of the Natchez (from Mississippi) people after French attacks in the 1730s.

  • He began painting in 1823, and finished it for a Salon in 1835

• Delacroix’s explanatory note describes two young ‘savages’ travelling up the Mississippi River, where the woman dies in childbirth, and the father tenderly holds his newborn in his hands

Scene in the Jewish Quarter of Constantine

• Theodore Chassériau, 1851, Oil on canvas

• Chasseriau witnessed this scene and captured it in his notebook during a trip to Algeria in 1846

  • he describes the ancient town of Constantine as primitive, overwhelming, touching, and singular, and describes the blending of Jews and Arabs, as they were since the beginning of time

  • The Jewish women of North Africa were attractive subjects for European painters, as they did not wear veils

The Turkish Patrol

• Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, 1855-56, Oil on canvas

• Decpits Turkish military patrols making rounds at Smyrna, now Izmir, which Decamps visited in 1828

  • a late variant of his first major Orientalist subject, exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1831

  • Decamps belonged to the first generation of French painters to popularize everyday life paintings set in the Middle East

Bashi-Bazouk

• Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1868, Oil on canvas

• made after Gerome returned to Paris from a 12 week journey to the near East in 1868, at the height of his career

  • he dressed a model in his studio with garments and accessories he acquired abroad

  • The Turkish title roughly translates to ‘headless’, evoking the poorly paid soldiers who fought under the Ottomans, although they wouldn’t charge into battle wearing a delicate silk tunic

    • the delicate and well rendered textures are a contrast to the stiff and dignified pose of the model

Cafe House, Cairo (Casting Bullets)

• Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1884 or earlier, Oil on canvas

• Two mercenaries cast bullets, and a third behind them inspects one, whilst others are engaging in revelry (partying)

  • despite some inaccuracies, the painting technique makes the scene convincing

  • his recolections of his journies abroad, together with objects he brought back to Paris, became ingredients for these scenes

    • which in the modern day, are observed as historical fictions

• The title derives from the stock book of Gerome’s dealer, who bought the painting in 1884, presumably when he finished it

Prayer in the Mosque

• Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1871, Oil on canvas

• Gerome painted this scene depicting the 17th century mosque of ‘Amr in Cairo, after his Egypt trip in 1868

  • the rows of worshipers, anywhere from dignitary noblepeople and their attendants to the loincloth-clad Muslim holy man, facing Mecca during one of the five daily prayers

  • however, it’s unlikely he saw this scene directly, as this mosque fell into disuse by 1868

  • the image is probably a composite of sketches and photographs from various sites

    • Gerome travelled the Middle East widely, and more than two thirds of his paintings are Orientalist subjects