rientalism pervaded a myriad of disciplines, and perhaps one of the most significant of these is its pictoral manifestation in art.
Eugène Delacroix, one of Renoir’s greatest influences, was one of the most well-known Orientalist painters of his time. His trips to Algeria and Morocco changed the way nineteenth-century European artists approached far away places. Delacroix’s interest in the Near East came from the typical Orientalist sources: travel books, historical texts, and literature, (Thornton 66) all of which were firmly rooted in and engendered by Western thought. One of the products of this interest, and one of Renoir’s favored paintings, was Women of Algiers in their Quarters (1834). Shrouded in darkness, seductive Orientals lounge on the ground, evoking not only the image of a harem, but also the sense of mystery which so glamorized the Orient at that time. As one of Renoir’s favorite painters, Delacroix set the stage for Orientalists of all types to follow in his footsteps.
Eugène Girardet, Etienne Dinet, and Gustave Guillaumet were three other nineteenth-century French Orientalists. Guillaumet visited Algeria ten times. Entranced by the French colony, he wrote and painted about life in Algeria from the perspective of an Orientalist, focusing on the primitive lifestyle of the Algerian people (Thornton 108). Guillaumet’s scenes of everyday life greatly inspired Girardet in his own Orientalist paintings. Girardet first experienced the Muslim world in 1874, with his visits to Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Growing up with Orientalist artists in his family, he had a natural talent in painting and was very attracted to the world of the Near East. During his stays in North Africa, he experienced the land and its people and it was there that he met Dinet, a man who had made Algeria his second home (Thornton 106). Having learned Arabic (Thornton 77), Dinet immersed himself more successfully in Algerian culture than many of his predecessors. In fact, in 1913 Dinet converted to Islam and even performed Hajj, fully embracing the religion of the country in which he had spent so much time.
The Orientalists of nineteenth-century Europe, while all focused on the same theme, approached it in many different ways. Some stayed close to their colonial roots, gazing down upon the cultures they painted. Others embraced and truly understood their subjects. The products of such a diverse group created a rich collection of depictions of the Near East.
For more information on Orientalist painters, see The Orientalists: Painter-Travellers by Lynne Thornton (1994).
Images: Delacroix, Eugene. Women of Algiers in their Quarters. Musee du Louvre, Paris.
Guillaumet, Gustave. Ain Kerma, the Fig-tree Spring, Tiaret Smala, Algeria. Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau.