The Women of Algiers
Encyclopedia
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
. It is located in the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, Paris, France. The painting was first displayed at the Salon, where it was universally admired. King Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe
Louis Philippe may refer to:*Louis-Philippe I, King of the French, last King of France*Prince Philippe, Count of Paris, called King Louis Philippe II by some factions*Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans*Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans...
bought it and presented it to the Musée du Luxembourg
Musée du Luxembourg
Musée du Luxembourg is a museum in Paris, France. It occupies the east wing of the Palais du Luxembourg, whose matching west wing originally housed Ruben's Marie de' Medici cycle. Since 2000 it has been run by the French Ministry of Culture and the Senate and is devoted to temporary exhibitions...
, which at that time was a museum for contemporary art. After the death of the artist in 1874 the painting was moved to the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...
, where it is held today.
The painting is notable for its sexual connotations; it depicts Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
n concubines of a harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
with a hookah
Hookah
A hookah A hookah(Gujarati હૂકાહ) A hookah(Gujarati હૂકાહ) (Hindustani: हुक़्क़ा (Devanagari, (Nastaleeq) huqqah) also known as a waterpipe or narghile, is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based) instrument for smoking in which the smoke is cooled by water. The tobacco smoked is referred to...
, used to smoke hashish
Hashish
Hashish is a cannabis preparation composed of compressed stalked resin glands, called trichomes, collected from the unfertilized buds of the cannabis plant. It contains the same active ingredients but in higher concentrations than unsifted buds or leaves...
or opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
. In the 19th century, it was known for its sexual content and its orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
. The painting served as a source of inspiration to the later impressionists, and a series of 15 paintings and numerous drawings by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
in 1954.
History
The French conquest of AlgeriaFrench conquest of Algeria
The French conquest of Algeria took place between 1830 and 1847. Using an 1827 diplomatic slight by Hussein Dey, the ruler of the Ottoman Regency of Algiers, against its consul as a pretext, France invaded and quickly seized Algiers in 1830, and rapidly took control of other coastal communities...
had begun in 1830; toward the end of 1831 the young diplomat Charles de Mornay was sent to the Sultan of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
. At that time it was common to take artists along, in order to visually document such a journey. Mornay was acquainted with an actress who knew Delacroix and recommended the artist to him for this assignment.
The invasion and occupation of Algeria was for entirely economic reasons; the French government owed an Algerian merchant a large sum for grain and the Turkish governor insisted on payment. During an audience this governor, Hussein Dey
Hussein Dey
Hussein Dey was the last ruler of Ottoman Algeria.Hussein Dey may also refer to:* Hussein Dey District, a district in Algeria* Hussein Dey...
, let himself get carried away and struck the french ambassador with his fan (the so-called "Fan Affair"), which was used by the French government as a convenient pretense for occupying the land. The Algerian border with Morocco was especially difficult to defend, so the French sought an alliance with the Sultan of Morocco for diplomatic reasons. Although the mission was successful, the Sultan did not take the agreement very seriously. Ultimately France attacked Morocco as well, in order to protect its economic interests.
In contrast to the chief of the diplomatic mission, who missed Parisian life and found the region and its people simply barbaric, Delacroix greatly relished the atmosphere, the colors, the objects, the people, and the architecture of this exotic world. All the same, Delacroix recorded in his notebook that although North Africa seemed surrounded by beauty, in regards to human rights and equality before the law there was much in need of improvement. Because Islam forbade all naturalistic images and women were veiled in public, it was difficult for Delacroix to find female models to draw from; men predominate in his sketchbooks. As soon as he would seek to sketch from afar the women who would hang their washing out on roof terraces, they would immediately alert their husbands. He was only let into Jewish households; there we would later paint the Jewish Wedding and The Jewish Bride. Thus he had no luck in Morocco. He finished his sketches for this painting at the last moment in Algiers, which by then was securely held by the French, where he lingered for a few days on the way back to France. A former Christian who had converted to Islam and had collaborated with the French, is supposed to have allowed him entry into his Harem.
The harem
Victor Hugo
Victor-Marie Hugo was a Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France....
authored the volume of poems Les Orientales
Les Orientales
Les Orientales is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, inspired by the Greek War of Independence. They were first published in January 1829.Of the forty-one poems, thirty-six were written during 1828...
and Delacroix contributed two paintings, The Massacre at Chios
The Massacre at Chios
The Massacre at Chios is the second major oil painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. The work is more than thirteen feet high, and shows some of the horror of the wartime destruction visited on the Island of Chios...
(1824) and Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Messolonghi (1826), a forerunner of his most famous painting Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People
Liberty Leading the People is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled Charles X of France. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the tricouleur flag of the French Revolution in one hand and...
(1830).
European men made the Harem
Harem
Harem refers to the sphere of women in what is usually a polygynous household and their enclosed quarters which are forbidden to men...
out to be a kind of plush private bordello; this painting has more than a little of this notion in it. The problem for European artists was that no European could obtain access to a Harem. Their fantasy depictions of it were therefore obviously pure inventions and often hardly believable. (see Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax.-Life:Jean-Léon Gérôme was born...
's 1876 Pool in a Harem, for example) In contrast, Delacroix could rely upon his own eyes, which lends his work a special heft, believability and authority.
Nevertheless this painting reflects anything but reality, but rather presents a mixture of observation and generally accepted European conventions. Other than the black slave, who appears to be leaving the room, the women are conspicuous in their luxurious idleness. In reality, however, the Harem would be teeming with children and all kinds of activities- the women would have been in no way alone and idly awaiting the return of their man. This is even more amazing as Delacroix himself noted in his journal that children were not to be overlooked. The natural and domestic setting thus becomes a bordello, such as would have been easy to find in Paris.