exoticism, orientalism and primitivism in french painting
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Exoticism, Orientalism and Primitivism in French Painting . Delacroix, Ingres, Gérôme, Monet, Gauguin and others. Edward Saïd, Orientalism. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Exoticism, Orientalism and Primitivism in French Painting
Delacroix, Ingres, Gérôme, Monet, Gauguin
and others
Edward Saïd, Orientalism
“The Orient was almost a European invention, and had been since antiquity
a place of romance, exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, and
remarkable experiences.”
1978
Orientalist art in 19th c. France:
•focus on a common fascination with a region rather than a movement or a style•depiction of aspects of daily life in the predominantly Muslim culture of the Middle East
Eugene Delacroix 1798-1863
• one of the most renowned Romantic painters of the 19th century
•traveled to Morocco and Algiers in 1830•rejected Italian pilgrimage normally taken by French
artists •subject matter began to include Eastern peoples,
clothing, decorative objects•luminous quality of light•vibrant colors
The Death of Sardanapalus 1827
Liberty Leading the People 1830
The Women of Algiers 1834
Lion Hunt 1856
Jean-Auguste Dominique INGRES
1780-1867
Odalisque 1814
Odalisque and Slave 1840
The Turkish Bath 1862
Édouard Manet 1832-1883
Away from Romanticism towards Realism,
Impressionism
One of the first 19th century artists to approach modern-life subjects as
opposed to mythological or Biblical subjects
Manet’s Olympia: 1863
Gustave Moreau1826-1898
•symbolist •illustration of Christian and mythological figures•literary ideas over visual images
Salomé1876
Jean-Leon Gérôme, 1824-1904
•highly influenced by Delacroix•visited Egypt in 1850s•several subsequent trips to Near East•nostalgia for a culture in which women were very much in their place, usually the harem or the slave market
The Snake Charmer 1880
The Moorish Bath
1870
Dance of the Almeh (date unknown)
Allumeusede
Narghilé
Harem Pool
(date unknown)
A Chat
By The
Fireside
1881
Edward SaïdOrientalism
1979
Edward Saïd on contemporary Western depictions of the Middle Eastern man:
•irrational•menacing•untrustworthy•anti-Western•dishonest•prototypical
The Orient as
•separate•eccentric•backward•silently different•sensual•passive
• Napoleon invades Egypt, 1798• Description de L’Egypt published between
1809-1822• Knowledge as power• The Orient as an “exhibition”: the
representation is more real than reality• Flaubert visits Egypt, 1849
Nerval, in Egypt, writing to Gautier, in France:
“Think of it no more! That Cairo [the one they had imagined via literature, images, etc.] lies between the ashes and dirt,…dust-laden and dumb. I really wanted to set the scene for you here. But…it is only in France that the cafés seem so Oriental.”
Orientalism is “a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient.” It is the image of the ‘Orient’ expressed as an entire system of thought and scholarship.
The Orient signifies a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empire. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. It is a mirror image of what is inferior and alien (“Other”) to the West. The Orient is reduced to one prototype, not a collection of varying cultures.
The Oriental is the person represented. The man is depicted as feminine, weak, yet strangely dangerous because poses a threat to white, Western women. The woman is both eager to be dominated and strikingly exotic. The Oriental is a single image, a sweeping generalization, a stereotype that crosses countless cultural and national boundaries.
Orientalist art
•a reflection of ourselves (the artists) rather than the true Orient
•our projected dreams and desires
ORIENTALISMVS.
EXOTICISM?
Claude Monet 1840-1926
Waterlillies 1914
Houses of Parliament at Sunset 1904
Haystack at Sunset 1891
Hosukai (Japanese)South Wind Clear Dawn 1831
La Japonaise
1876
A response to the phenomenon of “Japonisme” and the obsession in France with all things Japanese
Camille Pissarro 1830-1903 Danish, worked in France
Paul Gauguin’s mentor and teacher and one of the great Impressionists
PeasantsGathering
Grass 1881
Place du Theatre Français 1898
Pont Neuf: Fog 1902
Paul Gauguin 1848-1903
From France to the Polynesian Islands
From Impressionist to Symbolist
Still Life with Peaches
Market Gardens of Vaugirard 1879
Yellow Christ 1889
The Market 1892
Aha oe feii? (What? Are You Jealous?) 1892
The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch 1892
Tahitian Pastoral 1893
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897-98
Nevermore 1897
Women and a White Horse 1903