travel as physical movement and mental: Orientalism travel as physical movement and mental: Orientalism
Interest in the trip and the East from the late eighteenth century will become a major subjects of the painting. The previous conference on naturalism had raised the interest of a direct confrontation of an observed object. Orientalism becomes a pretext for a renewal of academic subjects for artists or modern.
The popularity of travel in the East is consistent with the major archaeological discoveries of the early nineteenth century. In 1798 shipments of Bonaparte in Egypt leading the way to travel in the East. Notes and drawings by Vivan Denon reported and published his description of sIn Egypt and the work of Champollion generate unprecedented interest. By 1830 the whole of Europe, the journey East is the rite of passage by which we reach a dual reality that the knowledge and the desire. From the mid-nineteenth century developments in technology simplifies the trip. Steam navigation or even make the railway a lot closer these countries much more accessible for some who were previously hostile to travelers.
Orientalism is expressed both through art, literature, music, architecture or still photography. academic painters through the Romantics to the Symbolists, the subjects marked the French and European artistic production of the nineteenth century. But the East "oriental" is often portrayed by artists who never left their shop. Over the shows, these themes become a subject familiar to Parisians. Beyond mere fashion, that Orientalism after 1850 is considered the most original extension of the Romantic painting.
Orientalism is not a school or style. As for naturalism after him, the works are only grouped according to themes. The majority of the painters of this period will at some point in their career to address this issue.
Each artist treated according to his own sensibility technical choices and the degree of virtuosity that East mainly fantasy. And painting techniques and styles change throughout the century based on artistic experiences, Orientalism will follow as a result of the impact of the subjectivity of the creator on the topic. The confrontation between naturalism and ideal lies at the heart of the East "Westernized."
It combines easy voyage Orientalism, Orientalist painter is the one who travels. But in reality, many Orientalist painters have actually traveled that around their bridge. The artists will then be inspired by travel stories and other facts. The development of photography in that a lot of help artists realize and represent an Orient more or less accurate.
Until 1840, the travel conditions are difficult, even perilous. Involved in shipping it excites the curiosity of those artists. Most of the painters in their clothes this demon of the trip, accumulating long stays enterprising real expeditions. But this attraction to the Orient is a fad of the West vis-à-vis these countries. the East created by the West The fantasy into motion when the West defines the Orient and Orientalism, like romance, is the original historical and literary.
emerges from this fantasy figure redundant, the young woman sweet and languid. Jean Dominique Ingres, painter neoclassical introduce this waking dream of an East almost erotic. From The Bather of Valpinçon in 1808 the Turkish bath in 1859, 1863, it relates to the tradition inherited from the eighteenth century the great Parisian François Boucher Odalisque or Fragonard. The most famous of them, the Grande Odalisque 1814 offers in a semi classical middle eastern a young woman reclining rear view. The few accessories give a tint to the east still remains a very fine study of a feminine beauty ideal. The anatomical deformation of the body and the desire to offer perfections fully staged theatrical. These literary evocations Ingres grow up image of harems culminating in the Turkish bath. Young women are represented in the memories that studies labor body q made since the beginning of his career. Their reconstruction in a specially designed Eastern emphasizes the imaginary and invented the scene. This great painter to official recognition established by the proposed change of theme paint relaxed. Lick and transparency are the basis of the composition, but the distortion of body and nakedness just give the descriptive table a sensitive and not moral.
Eugene Giraud, Women of Algiers.
The subject reflects the same attention to the figure of the oriental woman crystallizing thoughts and fantasies of the Orient. These female figures with more lascivious poses one than the others a very attractive and erotic power. Orientalists elevate anecdote shows contemporary observed from life as a great painting.
The format and composition reflects the ambition of the table. He won a great success at the show where Gautier so fond of Oriental stuffs note particularly "brilliant and dainty costumes we can certify the accuracy." Alexandre Dumas said one of the few faults of his paintings not worked according to model but memory. Eugene Giraud is a painter trained at the School of Fine Arts where he was admitted in 1821, and who will make his stay in Rome in 1834. The following year he traveled on Spain and Europe. His painting is an academic response to Women of Algiers in 1834 by Eugene Delacroix.
The subtitle of the table indoor playground, plunges us immediately into an intimate picture of a scene from harem. Women and children seem both ask and at the same time be absorbed by their activities. The architecture creates a scene and does not propose a dive into this universe East and feminine. Looks launched by young women to invites viewers to share that intimacy. The young woman holding the fan flapper rests on the wall and inclination of the head, takes a more sensual poses.
This table will oscillate between ideal and anecdotal, fueled by the many details (coffee service, coffee pot on the fire ship, the range ...) it seems to make a genre scene, activities Daily. idealization by the brilliance and transparency of clothing seems to offer a feminine idle.
This wavering between naturalism and idealization reflects a picture postcard that academic painters eager to offer viewers a fantasy than a reality.
Title Women of Algiers has everything but the table of Algerian women. The three young women on the doorstep of the models are taken directly from sketches and studies he has performed in Spain. In opening the door two women are the Middle East or the Sahara.
ethnological observation is not at stake in the big picture of Giraud. As pointed out by Dumas, he painted from memory. The archetype is the fact and the will of the painter. All details are consistent to offer not a reality but a dream in which the sensuality of oriental woman seems to invite us to flourish. The play of light can work sensuality of materials, flat areas of white silk veil and revealing the nakedness of the young women are calling for a light and sensuality of the paint. Light of the East brings the artists to a very clear evolution of color and effects. The tones become warmer palette evokes the light and warmth Eastern. The colors are bright and vibrant.
In a perfect control register description of his painting, Giraud seems almost by lighting effects bring the viewer to hold on and get details in a movement of the gaze. The Parisian public likes collected objects and fabrics Giraud and offers them a sensual and feminine filling from this cluster of objects and materials.
The large table can be entered as a witness to the idealization and the opportunity to meet face to young women whose size appears to grant full accessibility and concrete body and subject.
The female model is definitely the main topic of this oriental painting and academic. The will of the great moral issues of the neoclassical painting is upset or relaxed by the oriental theme. The latter was born in no way a travel interests in ethnology, the east in this view is a fantasy of the West.
Eugene Thirion victorious Judith, 1873
This table shows later in the conservation of female fantasy on the theme East. Although we are no longer a movement in academic and closer to the symbolism, the sensual woman and carnal remains basically the icon of the East.
Judith's story illustrates perfectly the femme fatale Eastern. His posture of three-quarters view from the left hand resting on a sword and the other on the head of Holofernes, the watch triumphant. It has nothing to do with the head of his enemy as the gaze of four men on the right side of the table. The latter, not the subjugated woman, seem to represent the four parts of the world and selected by the parapet. One behind the head and chest seems mesmerized by Judith. And positioned it exposes his neck. Would it not even a little danger?
Thririon consists effects of light by a strong footing in the Venetian style reminiscent of Veronese example. At the sensuality of the body of Judith is almost sensual in its setting color. The acid greens of his garment suggests that the artist has offered his Judith look quite Venetian. However, since the sixteenth century Judith had become an icon of sensuality Venetian artist here seems to be integrated.
Idealization and reflection of the painter Gustave Moreau and close to the symbolism shows a composition in which the subject is westernized East. Sitting on a historical narrative, he offers an eastern woman ideal where the viewer oscillates between attraction and distance.
Eugene Delacroix Arab actors or jesters, 1848
The romantic artist embodies by his stay in Morocco Orientalism experienced an Orient that transforms and nurtured an artistic work.
He spent January to June 1832 in the company of a diplomatic mission led by North Africa, Morocco and Algeria. This journey is a crucial element because of the profound influence he will have on the young painter Eugene Delacroix. Faced with this ancient and classical beauty seems to have survived in these areas, he realized he had a cultural and intellectual knowledge of the East which then becomes an empirical knowledge.
Actors buffoons or Arab is a work performed 15 years after his return from East. it testifies to the vitality, variety of colors and costumes of landscapes or houses that Delacroix was able to see and study in more depth during his stay. This table has been a very long gestation. He received a warm welcome lukewarm criticism during his presentation at the 1848 show. Thus the landscape is often placed in default because it has too raw greens that do not correspond to the ideal of the desert east of criticism.
The various protagonists of the scene in the foreground are all excerpts from books by Eugene Delacroix drawings made during his stay. Because if the artist travels, he realized his works upon his return to Paris. And as he says he keeps this show which had struck his view that "the right thing". This distancing the model allows it to win it for simplicity and be appropriated by this memory. He will say "Is it possible to tell in order to satisfy the elements varied emotions that make up a trip? [...] We also agree that more recent memories are, the harder it is set so as not to regret omissions. [...] However, I clearly see in the imagination all those things you did not need to write and who may be the only ones that deserve to be stored in memory [...] . "
This memorial work already present in Giraud, takes an entirely different connotation Eugene Delacroix. The journey is a physical fact that the quality is reflected in the activation of memory for the painting's composition. Thus, painting is not directly the subject of interest is the remembrance that this trip becomes mostly mental and subjective. The table is not meant more the story of a wonder and a change of scenery, it is a transcript of lyric feeling.
Delacroix does not propose an idealization, but a romance where the image is based on a number of observations used to redial the pictorial evocation of a memory and feeling.
The East is a way to evoke a reality that the scale painting gives it a fictional character and expressive.
Leon Belly
This painter is known for an impressive canvas, from Pilgrims to Mecca, considered one of the masterpieces of painting orientalist and now preserved at the Museum -d 'Orsay.
Admitted to the polytechnic, he turned to painting. His many contacts and friendships with the Barbizon school gave him his training Art. His first trip to the Middle East date back to 1850. Returning to France he worked in the forest of Fontainebleau.
He multiplied stays in the East, primarily Egypt. He made many studies of character and animals. Working at both a descriptive and pictorial will, his triumph in 1861 with the Pilgrims shows its quality as a colorist and seizure of an Orient that even if it calls for imagination, observation seems really straight. It is for this generation of travelers in the second half of the nineteenth century, whose residence and movement is facilitated enhanced integration of these populations and regions. Despite the fact that he stopped his travels after 1862, the theme of the East will always be a little bit this home.
Orientalism is a movement that is stylistically diverse. Each artist is in this revival of the means of expression issues purely and totally subjective. The East calls for expatriation and travel. Not as a physical movement but as a floating mind. The fantasy embodied by feminine sensuality or by a light and colors hitherto unseen and feeds an entire renewal of the construction of the painting. By changing themes to greater accuracy ethnological, this new focus allows artists to find a dialogue with an audience into a mind shift where imagination and observation intertwined to make the work experience.
