Theodore Chasseriau: The Harem Interior
Orientalist Interior or The Harem Interior (1850-1852) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Theodore Chasseriau, 38 cm x 46 cm (14.96" x 18.11"), private collection
Orientalist Interior or Harem Interior is an oil-on-canvas painting by Theodore Chassériau, painted between 1850 and 1852. It depicts a woman in the harem, an odalisque or concubine, a fully-clothed maid, a black figure (possibly a eunuch), and an old man, possibly the Sultan who owns the harem, smoking a hookah.
Benjamin Constant: Favorite of the Emir
Favorite of the Emir (La favorite d'émir), oil painting on canvas created in 1879 by the French artist Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902), 142.24 cm x 220.98 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA/ on loan to the U.S. Naval Academy Museum
The French artist Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin Constant), is best known for his works portraying Oriental subjects and portraits. His travel to Morocco in 1872 was a cornerstone in his early artistic development, inspiring him to create many works depicting scenes in North Africa and the Arab world under the influence of Orientalism.
Some of his best works include Justice in the Harem, Moroccan Prisoners, The Entrance of Mahomet II into Constantinople, Judith, Seated Arabs, Arabian Nights, Carpet seller in Tangiers, and Odalisque.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres: Odalisque with a slave
Odalisque with a Slave (Odaliske und Sklavin), 1842, oil on canvas painting by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), Walters Art Museum, Mount Vernon Baltimore, Maryland, USA
The original Orientalist painting titled ‘Odalisque with a Slave’ (L’Odalisque à l’esclave) by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) painted in 1839 was commissioned by Charles Marcotte, and it is on display at the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Ingres created a similar version of Odalisque with a Slave (Odaliske und Sklavin), in 1842 in association with his students Paul Flandrin and Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin. It is at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (the painting shown here). This version has a view of a garden, a Turkish Bath, and other views, which are influenced by the park at the Château de Dampierre.
To complete the settings as usual in paintings of Orientalism, Ingress has included a Hookah for smoking (suggesting either the odalisques and concubines used to smoke, or the Sultan just had a visit), and oriental tapestry, Turkish interiors and carpets, etc. The scene is made more realistic of a Sultan’s Harem by the presence of a white slave who plays a musical instrument and a jet-black African slave whose face cannot be seen unless you use floodlights.
While it was traditional or customary to include black slaves in Orientalist Harem paintings, why should the blacks be painted so black that even their faces cannot be recognized?
Paul Gauguin: Mahana no Atua
Mahana no Atua (the Day of God, titled also as ‘Reo Mā`ohi: Te mahana nō te Atua), 1894, oil on canvas painting by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), 66 cm x 87 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
‘Mahana no Atua’ is an oil painting by the celebrated French artist Paul Gauguin, who produced the largest volume of his works during his stay in the French Polynesia, especially Tahiti. Most of his works during the last phase of his life are heavily influenced by the Tahitian life and culture, Tahitian Gods and beliefs and the beauty and sensuality of Tahitian women.
The art and life of Gauguin had a huge influence on Pablo Picasso, whose paintings of monumental figures from 1906 reflect a direct impact of the figures, symbolism, and fauvism found in Gauguin’s works. Picasso’s celebrated work, ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ created in 1907, shows the savage power evoked by Gauguin in his works.
Gauguin’s ‘Mahana no Atua’ was one of ‘100 Great Paintings’ of all times, featured in the television series by Edwin Mullins for BBC Two in 1980.
Jean-Leon Gerome: Snake Charmer
Snake Charmer (1870), oil on canvas painting by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904), 122 cm x 84 cm, currently at Sterling & Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States
The French Orientalist Art received a shot in the arm because of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798-1801, though unsuccessful. However, it ignited a new interest in most things oriental.
Orientalism, in which Jean-Leon Gerome rather excelled, introduced to the West new ideas, though often incorrect, about the Arab and Turkish costumes, oriental carpets, Hookahs, oriental antiquities, furnishings, tiles and Islamic calligraphy in mosques and seraglios, warriors and others on horses, camels, and carriages. For the Western artists, who lived on Orientalism, sadly, it was customary to depict non-Europeans as extremely dark people, whether it was a harem servant, palace guard, or anyone outside the Western world including North African Jews and the local Eastern Christians.
Gerome had a number of pupils who were inspired by his works and emulated the master by painting scenes in harems, Turkish baths, slave auctions, and some of them even took Orientalism to the extent of being ridiculed.
Depictions of harems, moors, Turks, Arabs, and whatever suits the artists of Orientalism, who perhaps used the term loosely, anything and everything related to the West Asia, North Africa, etc. became quite fashionable during the times of early French Orientalism. At times many things named on the articles or titles related to the Orientalist works were inaccurate, indicating that the artists had very limited knowledge of the Orient. This trend can be spotted even in Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque art also.
Some of the artists who excelled in Orientalist themes were Gentile Bellini, Vittore Carpaccio, Jean-Étienne Liotard, Gavin Hamilton, Girodet, Eugene Delacroix, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Henri Matisse, Theodore Chassériau, Sir David Wilkie, William Holman Hunt, David Roberts, and James Tissot.
Gerome was rather specializing in Orientalist themes as can be seen in a vast number of his works such as The Arab and his Steed, Bashi-Bazouk Chieftain, An Arnaut in Cairo, Bonaparte in Egypt, The Carpet Merchant of Cairo, An Arab Caravan Outside A Fortified Town – Egypt, Egyptian Water Carrier, The Slave Market, Pool in a Harem, Whirling Dervishes, Harem Women Feeding Pigeons in a Courtyard, Solomon’s Wall – Jerusalem, The Dancer with Tambourine, and The Tomb of Hazrat Imam Hisain Allahis Salam, to name just a few. In addition to the Orientalist theme, Gerome made sure that the title too proclaimed it, no matter it gave the impression, for Gerome Orientalism meant mostly Egypt or Cairo.
Pedro Saenz: La tumba del poeta (The poet’s tomb)
La tumba del poeta (The poet's tomb), oil painting of 1900 by the pre-Raphaelite Spanish painter Saenz Pedro Saenz (1863-1927)
Saenz Pedro Saenz (1863-1927) was a pre-Raphaelite Spanish painter associated with the Malaga school of painting. He was a disciple of Bernardo Ferrandiz, and he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando), which is a museum and gallery located on the Calle de Alcalá in the heart of Madrid, Spain.
Some of Saenz’s works can be seen at the Museum of Fine Arts (The Museo de Málaga), Andalusia, Spain.
Jean-Leon Gerome: Selling Slaves in Rome
Selling Slaves in Rome, oil painting by Jean-Leon Gerome (1824-1904), dimensions 22.44 in x 25.20 in
The scene depicted in the painting ‘Selling Slaves in Rome’ by Jean-Leon Gerome, as the title suggests, is set in a slave market in Rome. As seen in the painting, women slaves were displayed for sale in the slave market in Rome, for use as concubines, odalisques and for similar roles in harems. The potential buyers were even allowed to physically examine them before a deal is finalized.
Slave traders used to stock up their slaves in their bases in European countries. For instance, the Danish slave traders had their bases in the Volga region to deal in Slavic women with the Arab slave traders.
Women and girls of Circassia were very popular slaves in the harems. They can be seen in the paintings of Orientalists as odalisques or concubines. Non-Muslim slaves were the most desired in the harems for roles such as maids, odalisques, singers, dancers and concubines. African women slaves are often depicted as dark colored servants or as attendants to odalisques in paintings.
The slave women of Slavic origin were captured and supplied to the slave traders and slave markets by various groups of slave-catchers, or even ethnic groups such as the Varangians (or Varyags), who were settlers along the rivers of Eastern Europe, in the areas that are now Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.
People living all along the Mediterranean coasts and even the British Isles and Iceland were victims of slave raids by the North African pirates, and the vast majority of slaves bought and sold were European women and girls.
From 16th to 19th centuries, the Ottoman Corsairs (Barbary Pirates), the pirates who operated from North Africa, mainly from the ports of Tunis, Tripoli and Algiers, used to capture people traveling by sea by attacking ships or by raiding coastal areas of Southern European and Western European countries.
