Misplaced Pages

#138861

116-425: Heinrich Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (31 July 1808 – 8 February 1899) was a German orientalist , known as a literary historian of Arabic literature , born at Münden , Hanover . He studied theology and oriental languages at Göttingen and Berlin . He taught at Göttingen, becoming a professor there (1842–90). He published many important Arabic texts and valuable works on Arabic history. Orientalism Since

232-564: A Geisha (2005) contains orientalist tropes and deep "cultural misrepresentations". She states that Memoirs of a Geisha "reinforces the idea of Japanese culture and geisha as exotic, backward, irrational, dirty, profane, promiscuous, bizarre, and enigmatic." During the Romantic period of the 19th century, ballet developed a preoccupation with the exotic. This exoticism ranged from ballets set in Scotland to those based on ethereal creatures. By

348-513: A background of smoke. Although the French government bought the painting, by 1832 officials deemed its glorification of liberty too inflammatory and removed it from public view. Nonetheless, Delacroix still received many government commissions for murals and ceiling paintings. Following the Revolution of 1848 that saw the end of the reign of King Louis Philippe, Delacroix' painting, Liberty Leading

464-762: A clause forbidding any representation of his features, "whether by a death-mask or by drawing or by photography. I forbid it, expressly." On 13 August, Delacroix died, with Jenny by his side. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His house, formerly situated along the canal of the Marne , is now near the exit of the motorway leading from Paris to central Germany. At the sale of his work in 1864, 9140 works were attributed to Delacroix, including 853 paintings, 1525 pastels and water colours, 6629 drawings, 109 lithographs, and over 60 sketch books. The number and quality of

580-466: A diplomatic mission to Morocco shortly after the French conquered Algeria . He went not primarily to study art, but to escape from the civilization of Paris, in hopes of seeing a more "primitive" culture. He eventually produced over 100 paintings and drawings of scenes from or based on the life of the people of North Africa, and added a new and personal chapter to the interest in Orientalism . Delacroix

696-420: A distinct national style of classical music . One hallmark of "The Five" composers was their reliance on orientalism. Many quintessentially "Russian" works were composed in orientalist style, such as Balakirev's Islamey , Borodin's Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade . As leader of "The Five", Balakirev encouraged the use of eastern themes and harmonies to set their "Russian" music apart from

812-467: A house to sketch what became Women of Algiers ; few later harem scenes had this claim to authenticity. When Ingres, the director of the French Académie de peinture , painted a highly colored vision of a hammam , he made his eroticized Orient publicly acceptable by his diffuse generalizing of the female forms (who might all have been the same model). More open sensuality was seen as acceptable in

928-631: A literary environment of colonial exploration from a distinctly European worldview. The current trend in analysis of this movement references a belief in this literature as a mode to justify European colonial endeavors with the expansion of territory. In his novel Salammbô , Gustave Flaubert used ancient Carthage in North Africa as a foil to ancient Rome . He portrayed its culture as morally corrupting and suffused with dangerously alluring eroticism. This novel proved hugely influential on later portrayals of ancient Semitic cultures . Said argues that

1044-451: A magnificent Great Pagoda designed by William Chambers . The Wilhelma (1846) in Stuttgart is an example of Moorish Revival architecture . Leighton House , built for the artist Frederic Leighton , has a conventional facade but elaborate Arab-style interiors, including original Islamic tiles and other elements as well as Victorian Orientalizing work. After 1860, Japonism , sparked by

1160-498: A monument to the people of Missolonghi and to the idea of freedom against tyrannical rule. This event interested Delacroix not only for his sympathies with the Greeks, but also because the poet Byron , whom Delacroix greatly admired, had died there. A trip to England in 1825 included visits to Thomas Lawrence and Richard Parkes Bonington , and the colour and handling of English painting provided impetus for his only full-length portrait,

1276-626: A nude", and his wife modelled for several of his harem scenes, which, with the rare examples by the classicist painter Lord Leighton , imagine "the harem as a place of almost English domesticity, ... [where]... women's fully clothed respectability suggests a moral healthiness to go with their natural good looks". Other artists concentrated on landscape painting , often of desert scenes, including Richard Dadd and Edward Lear . David Roberts (1796–1864) produced architectural and landscape views, many of antiquities , and published very successful books of lithographs from them. Russian Orientalist art

SECTION 10

#1732852564139

1392-498: A number of major paintings of Biblical subjects drawing on his Middle Eastern travels, improvising variants of contemporary Arab costume and furnishings to avoid specifically Islamic styles, and also some landscapes and genre subjects. The biblical subjects included The Scapegoat (1856), The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1860), and The Shadow of Death (1871). The Miracle of

1508-475: A pointed analogy with France's own absolute monarchy . Byron's poetry was highly influential in introducing Europe to the heady cocktail of Romanticism in exotic Oriental settings which was to dominate 19th century Oriental art. French Orientalist painting was transformed by Napoleon 's ultimately unsuccessful invasion of Egypt and Syria in 1798–1801, which stimulated great public interest in Egyptology , and

1624-574: A restraint of palette appropriate to the allegory, Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi displays a woman in Greek costume with her breast bared, arms half-raised in an imploring gesture before the horrible scene: the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city rather than surrender to the Turks. A hand is seen at the bottom, the body having been crushed by rubble. The painting serves as

1740-464: A retrospective exhibition of 248 paintings and lithographs by Delacroix—and ceased to mount any further exhibitions. The winter of 1862–63 was extremely rough for Delacroix; he was suffering from a bad throat infection that seemed to get worse over the course of the season. On a trip to Champrosay, he met a friend on the train and became exhausted after having a conversation. On 1 June he returned to Paris to see his doctor. Two weeks later, on 16 June, he

1856-764: A scholar who specialized in the languages and literatures of the Eastern world . Among such scholars were officials of the East India Company , who said that the Arab culture , the Indian culture , and the Islamic cultures should be studied as equal to the cultures of Europe . Among such scholars is the philologist William Jones , whose studies of Indo-European languages established modern philology . Company rule in India favored Orientalism as

1972-520: A small cottage in Champrosay , where he found respite in the countryside. From 1834 until his death, he was faithfully cared for by his housekeeper, Jeanne-Marie le Guillou, who zealously guarded his privacy, and whose devotion prolonged his life and his ability to continue working in his later years. In 1862 Delacroix participated in the creation of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts . His friend,

2088-582: A strain of Orientalism: "the East as a sign or metaphor, as imaginary geography, as historical fiction, as the reduced and totalized other against which we construct our (not less reduced and totalized) sense of ourselves." Taruskin conceded Russian composers, unlike those in France and Germany, felt an "ambivalence" to the theme since "Russia was a contiguous empire in which Europeans, living side by side with 'orientals', identified (and intermarried) with them far more than in

2204-655: A strong interest in Christianity. He had many commissions for religious paintings, including pieces for the Saints-Anges chapel of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. His religious paintings and style would shift drastically depending on the needs of the commission. Some of his religious works, such as Christ On the Sea of Galilee , had multiple painted versions. Delacroix's Pietà, a painting of the Virgin Mary mourning Christ after his death,

2320-603: A strong revival of interest in, and collecting of, 19th century Orientalist works since the 1970s, the latter was in large part led by Middle Eastern buyers. Authors and composers are not commonly referred to as "Orientalist" in the way that artists are, and relatively few specialized in Oriental topics or styles, or are even best known for their works including them. But many major figures, from Mozart to Flaubert, have produced significant works with Oriental subjects or treatments. Lord Byron with his four long "Turkish tales" in poetry,

2436-491: A technique for developing and maintaining positive relations with the Indians—until the 1820s, when the influence of "anglicists" such as Thomas Babington Macaulay and John Stuart Mill led to the promotion of a Western-style education. Additionally, Hebraism and Jewish studies gained popularity among British and German scholars in the 19th and 20th centuries. The academic field of Oriental studies , which comprehended

SECTION 20

#1732852564139

2552-510: Is a European adaptation of the Islamic arabesque that began in the late 15th century and was to be used in some types of work, such as bookbinding , until almost the present day. Early architectural use of motifs lifted from the Indian subcontinent is known as Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture . One of the earliest examples is the façade of Guildhall, London (1788–1789). The style gained momentum in

2668-519: Is a familiar pose in Romantic imagery in this period in Europe. The painting, which was not exhibited again for many years afterward, has been regarded by some critics as a gruesome fantasy involving death and lust. Especially shocking is the struggle of a nude woman whose throat is about to be cut, a scene placed prominently in the foreground for maximum impact. However, the sensuous beauty and exotic colours of

2784-654: Is a story involving a shah's wife and her illicit relations with a Golden Slave, originally played by Vaslav Nijinsky . The ballet's controversial fixation on sex includes an orgy in an oriental harem. When the shah discovers the actions of his numerous wives and their lovers, he orders the deaths of those involved. Sheherazade was loosely based on folktales of questionable authenticity. Eug%C3%A8ne Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( / ˈ d ɛ l ə k r w ɑː , ˌ d ɛ l ə ˈ k r w ɑː / DEL -ə-krwah, -⁠ KRWAH ; French: [øʒɛn dəlakʁwa] ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863)

2900-734: Is a theatrical one: the Orient is the stage on which the whole East is confined", and that the subject of learned Orientalists "is not so much the East itself as the East made known, and therefore less fearsome, to the Western reading public". In the academy, the book Orientalism (1978) became a foundational text of post-colonial cultural studies . The analyses in Said's works are of Orientalism in European literature, especially French literature , and do not analyse visual art and Orientalist painting . In that vein,

3016-488: Is one of the most important writers to make exotic fantasy Oriental settings a significant theme in the literature of Romanticism . Giuseppe Verdi 's opera Aida (1871) is set in Egypt as portrayed through the content and the visual spectacle. "Aida" depicts a militaristic Egypt's tyranny over Ethiopia . Irish Orientalism had a particular character, drawing on various beliefs about early historical links between Ireland and

3132-670: The Greek civil wars of 1823–1825 shows dying Greek civilians rounded up for enslavement by the Ottoman Empire . This is one of several paintings he made of contemporary events, expressing the official policy for the Greek cause in Greek War of Independence against the Turks, the English, the Russians, and the French governments. Delacroix was quickly recognized by the authorities as a leading painter in

3248-535: The Ottoman Empire in painting and prints . Gentile Bellini, who travelled to Constantinople and painted the Sultan, and Vittore Carpaccio were the leading painters. By then the depictions were more accurate, with men typically dressed all in white. The depiction of Oriental carpets in Renaissance painting sometimes draws from Orientalist interest, but more often just reflects the prestige these expensive objects had in

3364-625: The Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt and David Roberts (in The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia ) had similar motivations, giving an emphasis on realism in British Orientalist art from the start. The French artist James Tissot also used contemporary Middle Eastern landscape and decor for Biblical subjects, with little regard for historical costumes or other fittings. William Holman Hunt produced

3480-464: The "pastoral" works of Beethoven, that Delacroix was able to draw the most emotion and inspiration. At one point during his life, Delacroix befriended and made portraits of the composer Chopin; in his journal, Delacroix praised him frequently. In 1838 Delacroix exhibited Medea about to Kill Her Children , which created a sensation at the Salon. His first large-scale treatment of a scene from Greek mythology,

3596-490: The 18th and 19th centuries. The thesis of Orientalism develops Antonio Gramsci 's theory of cultural hegemony , and Michel Foucault 's theorisation of discourse (the knowledge - power relation) to criticise the scholarly tradition of Oriental studies. Said criticised contemporary scholars who perpetuated the tradition of outsider-interpretation of Arabo -Islamic cultures, especially Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami . Furthermore, Said said that "The idea of representation

Ferdinand Wüstenfeld - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-532: The 19th century. At that time, artists and scholars were described as Orientalists, especially in France, where the dismissive use of the term "Orientalist" was made popular by the art critic Jules-Antoine Castagnary . Despite such social disdain for a style of representational art , the French Society of Orientalist Painters was founded in 1893, with Jean-Léon Gérôme as the honorary president; whereas in Britain,

3828-605: The American's image of Okinawa rather than about the Okinawan people ." The film characterizes the Okinawans as "merry but backward" and "de-politicized", which ignored the real-life Okinawan political protests over forceful land acquisition by the American military at the time. Kimiko Akita, in Orientalism and the Binary of Fact and Fiction in 'Memoirs of a Geisha' , argues that Memoirs of

3944-547: The Angel ", "Saint Michael Slaying the Dragon", and "The Expulsion of Heliodorus from the Temple". These commissions offered him the opportunity to compose on a large scale in an architectural setting, much as had those masters he admired, Paolo Veronese , Tintoretto , and Rubens. The work was fatiguing, and during these years he suffered from an increasingly fragile constitution. In addition to his home in Paris, from 1844 he also lived at

4060-581: The Battle of the Pyramids (1810). Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson 's La Révolte du Caire (1810) was another large and prominent example. A well-illustrated Description de l'Égypte was published by the French Government in twenty volumes between 1809 and 1828, concentrating on antiquities . Eugène Delacroix 's first great success, The Massacre at Chios (1824) was painted before he visited Greece or

4176-636: The British involvement in successfully suppressed the slave trade in Egypt, but also for cruelty and "representing fleshiness for its own sake". But Rana Kabbani believes that "French Orientalist painting, as exemplified by the works of Gérôme, may appear more sensual, gaudy, gory and sexually explicit than its British counterpart, but this is a difference of style not substance ... Similar strains of fascination and repulsion convulsed their artists" Nonetheless, nudity and violence are more evident in British paintings set in

4292-501: The East, and followed his friend Théodore Géricault 's The Raft of the Medusa in showing a recent incident in distant parts that had aroused public opinion. Greece was still fighting for independence from the Ottomans, and was effectively as exotic as the more Near Eastern parts of the empire. Delacroix followed up with Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1827), commemorating a siege of

4408-507: The East, few of which are now regarded as historically correct. The mythical Milesians are one example of this. The Irish were also conscious of the views of other nations seeing them as comparably backward to the East, and Europe's "backyard Orient." In music, Orientalism may be applied to styles occurring in different periods, such as the alla Turca , used by multiple composers including Mozart and Beethoven . The musicologist Richard Taruskin identified in 19th-century Russian music

4524-702: The French House of Commons. His legitimate father, Charles Delacroix, died in 1805, and his mother in 1814, leaving 16-year-old Eugène an orphan. His early education was at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand , and at the Lycée Pierre Corneille in Rouen where he steeped himself in the classics and won awards for drawing. In 1815 he began his training with Pierre-Narcisse Guérin in the neoclassical style of Jacques-Louis David . An early church commission, The Virgin of

4640-497: The German symphonism of Anton Rubinstein and other Western-oriented composers. Edward Said originally wrote that Germany did not have a politically motivated Orientalism because its colonial empire did not expand in the same areas as France and Britain. Said later stated that Germany "had in common with Anglo-French and later American Orientalism [...] a kind of intellectual authority over the Orient". However, Said also wrote that "there

4756-567: The Haractas, Followed by his Escort (1846) before he first visited the East, but in later decades the steamship made travel much easier and increasing numbers of artists traveled to the Middle East and beyond, painting a wide range of Oriental scenes. In many of these works, artists portrayed the Orient as exotic, colorful and sensual, not to say stereotyped . Such works typically concentrated on Arab, Jewish, and other Semitic cultures, as those were

Ferdinand Wüstenfeld - Misplaced Pages Continue

4872-588: The Harvest (1819), displays a Raphael -esque influence, but another such commission, The Virgin of the Sacred Heart (1821), evidences a freer interpretation. It precedes the influence of the more colourful and rich style of the Flemish Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens , and fellow French artist Théodore Géricault , whose works marked an introduction to Romanticism in art. The impact of Géricault's The Raft of

4988-510: The Holy Fire (1899) was intended as a picturesque satire on the local Eastern Christians, of whom, like most European visitors, Hunt took a very dim view. His A Street Scene in Cairo; The Lantern-Maker's Courtship (1854–61) is a rare contemporary narrative scene, as the young man feels his fiancé's face, which he is not allowed to see, through her veil, as a Westerner in the background beats his way up

5104-585: The Luxembourg, where it would have joined The Barque of Dante and Scenes from the Massacres of Chios . From 1833 on Delacroix received numerous commissions to decorate public buildings in Paris. In that year he began work for the Salon du Roi in the Chambre des Députés, Palais Bourbon , which was not completed until 1837, and began a lifelong friendship with the female artist Marie-Élisabeth Blavot-Boulanger . For

5220-740: The Medusa was profound, and stimulated Delacroix to produce his first major painting, The Barque of Dante , which was accepted by the Paris Salon in 1822. The work caused a sensation, and was largely derided by the public and officialdom, yet was purchased by the State for the Luxembourg Galleries ; the pattern of widespread opposition to his work, countered by a vigorous, enlightened support, would continue throughout his life. Two years later he again achieved popular success for his The Massacre at Chios . Delacroix's painting of Chios Massacre during

5336-640: The Netherlands (the Dutch East India Company ) and France (the French East India Company ). Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine Ming -era blue and white porcelain from the early 17th century. Early ceramic wares made at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares (see Chinese export porcelain ). Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in

5452-572: The Orient that comprehended East Asia : "the awakening of the Orient under the impact of Western ideas." Edward Said said that Orientalism "enables the political, economic, cultural and social domination of the West, not just during colonial times, but also in the present." In art history , the term Orientalism refers to the works of mostly 19th-century Western artists who specialized in Oriental subjects, produced from their travels in Western Asia , during

5568-622: The Palais de Justice in Rouen and Westminster Hall , the drama plays out in chiaroscuro, organized around a brilliantly lit stretch of tablecloth. In 1855, a critic described the painting's vibrant handling as "Less finished than a painting, more finished than a sketch, The Murder of the Bishop of Liège was left by the painter at that supreme moment when one more stroke of the brush would have ruined everything". Delacroix's most influential work came in 1830 with

5684-751: The Paris Opera, with choreography by Joseph Mazilier . Marius Petipa re-choreographed the ballet for the Maryinsky Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1899. Its complex storyline, loosely based on Lord Byron's poem , takes place in Turkey and focuses on a love story between a pirate and a beautiful slave girl. Scenes include a bazaar where women are sold to men as slaves, and the Pasha's Palace, which features his harem of wives. In 1877, Marius Petipa choreographed La Bayadère ,

5800-495: The People , was finally put on display by the newly elected president, Louis Napoleon ( Napoleon III ). It is exhibited in the Louvre museum in Paris; although from December 2012 until 2014 it was on exhibit at Louvre-Lens in Lens, Pas-de-Calais . The boy holding a pistol aloft on the right is sometimes thought to be an inspiration for the Gavroche character in Victor Hugo 's 1862 novel, Les Misérables . Delacroix painted hundreds of religious works in his lifetime and had

5916-432: The Ruins of Palmyra (1758, now Edinburgh) elevates tourism to the heroic, with the two travelers wearing what look very like togas . Many travelers had themselves painted in exotic Eastern dress on their return, including Lord Byron , as did many who had never left Europe, including Madame de Pompadour . The growing French interest in exotic Oriental luxury and lack of liberty in the 18th century to some extent reflected

SECTION 50

#1732852564139

6032-517: The Saidian sense of the term. Gérôme was the precursor, and often the master, of a number of French painters in the later part of the century whose works were often frankly salacious, frequently featuring scenes in harems, public baths and slave auctions (the last two also available with classical decor), and responsible, with others, for "the equation of Orientalism with the nude in pornographic mode"; ( Gallery, below ) Orientalist sculptors include Charles Cordier . Though British political interest in

6148-828: The ancient world, and "the iconography of the odalisque ... the Oriental sex slave whose image is offered up to the viewer as freely as she herself supposedly was to her master – is almost entirely French in origin", though taken up with enthusiasm by Italian and other European painters. John Frederick Lewis , who lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo , painted highly detailed works showing both realistic genre scenes of Middle Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper class Egyptian interiors with no traces of Western cultural influence yet apparent. His careful and seemingly affectionate representation of Islamic architecture, furnishings, screens, and costumes set new standards of realism, which influenced other artists, including Gérôme in his later works. He "never painted

6264-498: The art historian Linda Nochlin applied Said's methods of critical analysis to art, "with uneven results". Other scholars see Orientalist paintings as depicting a myth and a fantasy that did not often correlate with reality. There is also a critical trend within the Islamic world . In 2002, it was estimated that in Saudi Arabia alone some 200 books and 2,000 articles discussing Orientalism had been penned by local or foreign scholars. The Moresque style of Renaissance ornament

6380-417: The artistry of Michelangelo. But, throughout his life, he felt a constant need for music, saying in 1855 that "nothing can be compared with the emotion caused by music; that it expresses incomparable shades of feeling." He also said, while working at Saint-Sulpice, that music put him in a state of "exaltation" that inspired his painting. It was often from music, whether the most melancholy renditions of Chopin or

6496-403: The case of other colonial powers". Nonetheless, Taruskin characterized Orientalism in Romantic Russian music as having melodies "full of close little ornaments and melismas", chromatic accompanying lines, drone bass —characteristics which were used by Glinka , Balakirev , Borodin , Rimsky-Korsakov , Lyapunov , and Rachmaninov . These musical characteristics evoke: not just the East, but

6612-458: The central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault , Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron , with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime ", of nature in often violent action. However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism

6728-442: The clothes of the Near East . The Three Magi in Nativity scenes were an especial focus for this. In general art with Biblical settings would not be considered as Orientalist except where contemporary or historicist Middle Eastern detail or settings is a feature of works, as with some paintings by Gentile Bellini and others, and a number of 19th-century works. Renaissance Venice had a phase of particular interest in depictions of

6844-481: The composition make the picture appear pleasing and shocking at the same time. A variety of Romantic interests were again synthesized in The Murder of the Bishop of Liège (1829). It also borrowed from a literary source, this time Scott, and depicts a scene from the Middle Ages , that of the murder of Louis de Bourbon, Bishop of Liège amidst an orgy sponsored by his captor, William de la Marck . Set in an immense vaulted interior which Delacroix based on sketches of

6960-402: The continuity of Orientalism into the present can be found in influential images, particularly through the Cinema of the United States , as the West has now grown to include the United States. Many blockbuster feature films, such as the Indiana Jones series, The Mummy films, and Disney's Aladdin film series demonstrate the imagined geographies of the East. The films usually portray

7076-418: The cultures of the Near East and the Far East , became the fields of Asian studies and Middle Eastern studies . In his book Orientalism (1978), cultural critic Edward Said redefines the term Orientalism to describe a pervasive Western tradition—academic and artistic—of prejudiced outsider-interpretations of the Eastern world , which was shaped by the cultural attitudes of European imperialism in

SECTION 60

#1732852564139

7192-451: The death of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus shows an emotionally stirring scene alive with colours, exotic costumes and tragic events. The Death of Sardanapalus depicts the besieged king watching impassively as guards carry out his orders to kill his servants, concubines and animals. The literary source is a play by Byron, although the play does not specifically mention any massacre of concubines. Sardanapalus' attitude of calm detachment

7308-400: The drawings, whether done for constructive purposes or to capture a spontaneous movement, underscored his explanation, "Colour always occupies me, but drawing preoccupies me." Delacroix produced several fine self-portraits , and a number of memorable portraits which seem to have been done purely for pleasure, among which were the portrait of fellow artist Baron Schwiter, an inspired small oil of

7424-640: The elegant Portrait of Louis-Auguste Schwiter (1826–30). At roughly the same time, Delacroix was creating romantic works of numerous themes, many of which would continue to interest him for over thirty years. By 1825, he was producing lithographs illustrating Shakespeare, and soon thereafter lithographs and paintings from Goethe's Faust . Paintings such as The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan (1826), and Woman with Parrot (1827), introduced subjects of violence and sensuality which would prove to be recurrent. These various romantic strands came together in The Death of Sardanapalus (1827–28). Delacroix's painting of

7540-407: The end of his life. Animals—the embodiment of romantic passion—were incorporated into paintings such as Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable (1860), The Lion Hunt (of which there exist many versions, painted between 1856 and 1861), and Arab Saddling his Horse (1855). Delacroix drew inspiration from many sources over his career, such as the literary works of William Shakespeare and Lord Byron, and

7656-417: The exotic Orient. This imagery persisted in art into the early 20th century, as evidenced in Henri Matisse 's orientalist semi-nudes from his Nice period, and his use of Oriental costumes and patterns. Ingres' pupil Théodore Chassériau (1819–1856) had already achieved success with his nude The Toilette of Esther (1841, Louvre ) and equestrian portrait of Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of

7772-484: The finest works of the genre. California architects Greene and Greene were inspired by Japanese elements in their design of the Gamble House and other buildings. Egyptian Revival architecture became popular in the early and mid-19th century and continued as a minor style into the early 20th century. Moorish Revival architecture began in the early 19th century in the German states and was particularly popular for building synagogues. Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture

7888-832: The formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid . Thomas Chippendale 's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, c. 1753–1770. Sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid-Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs that suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream " chinoiserie ". Chinoiserie media included imitations of lacquer and painted tin ( tôle ) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has

8004-510: The ideas and culture that writers of the time reflected in their work. During this time, the culture and objects of the East began to have a profound effect on Europe. Extensive traveling by artists and members of the European elite brought travelogues and sensational tales back to the West creating a great interest in all things "foreign". Romantic Orientalism incorporates African and Asian geographic locations, well-known colonial and "native" personalities, folklore , and philosophies to create

8120-512: The importing of ukiyo-e , became an important influence in the western arts. In particular, many modern French artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were influenced by the Japanese style. Mary Cassatt , an American artist who worked in France, used elements of combined patterns, flat planes and shifting perspective of Japanese prints in her own images. The paintings of James Abbott McNeill Whistler 's The Peacock Room demonstrated how he used aspects of Japanese tradition and are some of

8236-431: The late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, c. 1740–1770. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success. Early hints of Chinoiserie appeared in the 17th century in nations with active East India companies: England (the East India Company ), Denmark (the Danish East India Company ),

8352-425: The later part of the century, ballets were capturing the presumed essence of the mysterious East. These ballets often included sexual themes and tended to be based on assumptions of people rather than on concrete facts. Orientalism is apparent in numerous ballets. The Orient motivated several major ballets, which have survived since the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Le Corsaire premiered in 1856 at

8468-513: The lead heroic characters as being from the Western world, while the villains often come from the East. The representation of the Orient has continued in film, although this representation does not necessarily have any truth to it. In The Tea House of the August Moon (1956), as argued by Pedro Iacobelli, there are tropes of orientalism. He notes, that the film "tells us more about the Americans and

8584-430: The love story of an Indian temple dancer and Indian warrior. This ballet was based on Kalidasa's play Sakuntala . La Bayadere used vaguely Indian costuming, and incorporated Indian inspired hand gestures into classical ballet. In addition, it included a 'Hindu Dance,' motivated by Kathak, an Indian dance form. Another ballet, Sheherazade , choreographed by Michel Fokine in 1910 to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov ,

8700-604: The new Romantic style, and the picture was bought by the state. His depiction of suffering was controversial, however, as there was no glorious event taking place, no patriots raising their swords in valour as in David's Oath of the Horatii , only a disaster. Many critics deplored the painting's despairing tone; the artist Antoine-Jean Gros called it "a massacre of art". The pathos in the depiction of an infant clutching its dead mother had an especially powerful effect, although this detail

8816-790: The next ten years he painted in both the Library at the Palais Bourbon and the Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. In 1843 he decorated the Church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrement with a large Pietà , and from 1848 to 1850 he painted the ceiling in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Louvre . From 1857 to 1861 he worked on frescoes for the Chapelle des Anges at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. They included " Jacob Wrestling with

8932-508: The ones visited by artists as France became more engaged in North Africa. French artists such as Eugène Delacroix , Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres painted many works depicting Islamic culture, often including lounging odalisques . They stressed both lassitude and visual spectacle. Other scenes, especially in genre painting , have been seen as either closely comparable to their equivalents set in modern-day or historical Europe, or as also reflecting an Orientalist mind-set in

9048-612: The optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists , while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer , Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare , the Scottish author Walter Scott , and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe . Eugène Delacroix was born on 26 April 1798 at Charenton-Saint-Maurice in Île-de-France , near Paris. His mother

9164-726: The outbreak of the Second World War, German dominance of Orientalism was practically unchallenged." Nationalist historical painting in Central Europe and the Balkans dwelt on oppression during the Ottoman Empire period, battles between Ottoman and Christian armies, as well as themes like the Ottoman Imperial Harem , although the latter was a less common theme than in French depictions. The Saidian analysis has not prevented

9280-513: The painting Liberty Leading the People , which for choice of subject and technique highlights the differences between the romantic approach and the neoclassical style. Less obviously, it also differs from the Romanticism of Géricault , as exemplified by The Raft of the Medusa . Delacroix felt his composition more vividly as a whole, thought of his figures and crowds as types, and dominated them by

9396-602: The painting Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834), but generally he encountered difficulty in finding Muslim women to pose for him because of Muslim rules requiring that women be covered. Less problematic was the painting of Jewish women in North Africa, as subjects for the Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1837–1841). While in Tangier , Delacroix made many sketches of the people and the city, subjects to which he would return until

9512-475: The painting depicts Medea clutching her children, dagger drawn to slay them in vengeance for her abandonment by Jason . The three nude figures form an animated pyramid, bathed in a raking light that penetrates the grotto in which Medea has hidden. Though the painting was quickly purchased by the State, Delacroix was disappointed when it was sent to the Lille Musée des Beaux-Arts ; he had intended for it to hang at

9628-596: The period. Jean-Étienne Liotard (1702–1789) visited Istanbul and painted numerous pastels of Turkish domestic scenes; he also continued to wear Turkish attire for much of the time when he was back in Europe. The ambitious Scottish 18th-century artist Gavin Hamilton found a solution to the problem of using modern dress, considered unheroic and inelegant, in history painting by using Middle Eastern settings with Europeans wearing local costume, as travelers were advised to do. His huge James Dawkins and Robert Wood Discovering

9744-470: The previous year, and The Death of Sardanapalus , inspired by Lord Byron , which although set in antiquity has been credited with beginning the mixture of sex, violence, lassitude and exoticism which runs through much French Orientalist painting. In 1832, Delacroix finally visited what is now Algeria , recently conquered by the French, and Morocco , as part of a diplomatic mission to the Sultan of Morocco . He

9860-421: The publication of Edward Said 's Orientalism in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in

9976-478: The realists who carefully painted what they observed such as Gustav Bauernfeint; and those who imagined Orientalist scenes without ever leaving the studio. French painters such as Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) and Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904) are widely regarded as the leading luminaries of the Orientalist movement. In the late 18th century, 19th century and early 20th century, the term Orientalist identified

10092-582: The return voyage. Though not noted as a religious painter, Wilkie made the trip with a Protestant agenda to reform religious painting, as he believed that: "a Martin Luther in painting is as much called for as in theology, to sweep away the abuses by which our divine pursuit is encumbered", by which he meant traditional Christian iconography . He hoped to find more authentic settings and decor for Biblical subjects at their original location, though his death prevented more than studies being made. Other artists including

10208-510: The seductive East that emasculates, enslaves, renders passive. In a word, it signifies the promise of the experience of nega , a prime attribute of the orient as imagined by the Russians.... In opera and song, nega often simply denotes S-E-X a la russe, desired or achieved. Orientalism is also traceable in music that is considered to have effects of exoticism , including the influence of Javanese gamelan in Claude Debussy 's piano music all

10324-406: The service of imperial power . Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior. This allows 'Western imagination' to see 'Eastern' cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization. Journalist and art critic Jonathan Jones pushed back on Said’s claims, and suggested that the majority of Orientalism

10440-400: The spirit of liberty, he seems to be trying to convey the will and character of the people, rather than glorifying the actual event, the 1830 revolution against Charles X , which did little other than bring a different king, Louis Philippe I , to power. The warriors lying dead in the foreground offer poignant counterpoint to the symbolic female figure, who is illuminated triumphantly against

10556-512: The street with his stick. This a rare intrusion of a clearly contemporary figure into an Orientalist scene; mostly they claim the picturesqueness of the historical painting so popular at the time, without the trouble of researching authentic costumes and settings. When Gérôme exhibited For Sale; Slaves at Cairo at the Royal Academy in London in 1871, it was "widely found offensive", partly because

10672-414: The symbolic figure of Republican Liberty which is one of his finest plastic inventions... Probably Delacroix's best-known painting, Liberty Leading the People is an unforgettable image of Parisians, having taken up arms, marching forward under the banner of the tricolour representing liberty, equality, and fraternity. Although Delacroix was inspired by contemporary events to invoke this romantic image of

10788-599: The term Orientalist identified "an artist". The formation of the French Orientalist Painters Society changed the consciousness of practitioners towards the end of the 19th century, since artists could now see themselves as part of a distinct art movement. As an art movement, Orientalist painting is generally treated as one of the many branches of 19th-century academic art ; however, many different styles of Orientalist art were in evidence. Art historians tend to identify two broad types of Orientalist artist:

10904-423: The territories of the unravelling Ottoman Empire was as intense as in France, it was mostly more discreetly exercised. The origins of British Orientalist 19th-century painting owe more to religion than military conquest or the search for plausible locations for nude women. The leading British genre painter , Sir David Wilkie was 55 when he travelled to Istanbul and Jerusalem in 1840, dying off Gibraltar during

11020-684: The then Batavian Republic . Delacroix who at the time suffered from erectile dysfunction returned to Paris in early September 1797, only to find his wife pregnant. Talleyrand went on to assist Eugène in the form of numerous anonymous commissions. Throughout his career as a painter, he was protected by Talleyrand, who served successively the Restoration and king Louis-Philippe , and ultimately as ambassador of France in Great Britain, and later by Charles Auguste Louis Joseph, duc de Morny , half-brother of Napoleon III , Grandson of Talleyrand, and speaker of

11136-469: The use of "Turkish" styles in the decorative arts, the adoption of Turkish costume at times, and interest in art depicting the Ottoman Empire itself. Venice, the traditional trading partner of the Ottomans, was the earliest centre, with France becoming more prominent in the 18th century. Chinoiserie is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in

11252-404: The violinist Niccolò Paganini , and Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand , a double portrait of his friends, the composer Frédéric Chopin and writer George Sand ; the painting was cut after his death, but the individual portraits survive. On occasion Delacroix painted pure landscapes ( The Sea at Dieppe , 1852) and still lifes ( Still Life with Lobsters , 1826–27), both of which feature

11368-434: The virtuoso execution of his figure-based works. He is also well known for his Journal , in which he gave eloquent expression to his thoughts on art and contemporary life. A generation of impressionists was inspired by Delacroix's work. Renoir and Manet made copies of his paintings, and Degas purchased the portrait of Baron Schwiter for his private collection. His painting at the church of Saint-Sulpice has been called

11484-574: The way to the sitar being used in recordings by the Beatles . In the United Kingdom, Gustav Holst composed Beni Mora evoking a languid, heady Arabian atmosphere. Orientalism, in a more camp fashion also found its way into exotica music in the late 1950s, especially the works of Les Baxter , for example, his composition "City of Veils". The Romantic movement in literature began in 1785 and ended around 1830. The term Romantic references

11600-592: The west with the publication of views of India by William Hodges , and William and Thomas Daniell from about 1795. Examples of "Hindoo" architecture are Sezincote House ( c.  1805 ) in Gloucestershire , built for a nabob returned from Bengal , and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton . Turquerie , which began as early as the late 15th century, continued until at least the 18th century, and included both

11716-540: The world; the sky whence comes the sun; the east; the rising sun, etc.; yet the denotation changed as a term of geography. In the " Monk's Tale " (1375), Geoffrey Chaucer wrote: "That they conquered many regnes grete / In the orient, with many a fair citee." The term orient refers to countries east of the Mediterranean Sea and Southern Europe . In In Place of Fear (1952), Aneurin Bevan used an expanded denotation of

11832-404: The writer Théophile Gautier , became chairman, with the painter Aimé Millet acting as deputy chairman. In addition to Delacroix, the committee was composed of the painters Carrier-Belleuse and Puvis de Chavannes . Among the exhibitors were Léon Bonnat, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux , Charles-François Daubigny , Gustave Doré , and Édouard Manet . Just after his death in 1863, the society organized

11948-575: Was Victoire Oeben, the daughter of the cabinetmaker Jean-François Oeben . He had three much older siblings. Charles-Henri Delacroix (1779–1845) rose to the rank of General in Napoleon's army. Henriette (1780–1827) married the diplomat Raymond de Verninac Saint-Maur (1762–1822). Henri was born six years later. He was killed at the Battle of Friedland on 14 June 1807. There are medical reasons to believe that Eugène's legal father, Charles-François Delacroix ,

12064-599: Was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school. In contrast to the Neoclassical perfectionism of his chief rival Ingres , Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance , with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized

12180-960: Was a genre that arose in the late 19th century in the British Raj . Orientalist tendencies in Western art have a long history. Oriental scenes may be found in medieval and Renaissance art, and Islamic art has itself had a profound and formative influence on Western artistic output. Oriental subject matter further proliferated in the 19th century, in step with Western colonialism in Africa and Asia. Depictions of Islamic " Moors " and " Turks " (imprecisely named Muslim groups of southern Europe , North Africa and West Asia ) can be found in Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque art. In Biblical scenes in Early Netherlandish painting , secondary figures, especially Romans, were given exotic costumes that distantly reflected

12296-590: Was also recorded in subsequent years by Napoleon's court painters, especially Antoine-Jean Gros , although the Middle Eastern campaign was not one on which he accompanied the army. Two of his most successful paintings, Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa (1804) and Battle of Abukir (1806) focus on the Emperor, as he was by then, but include many Egyptian figures, as does the less effective Napoleon at

12412-445: Was condemned as unfit for art by Delacroix's critics. A viewing of the paintings of John Constable and the watercolour sketches and art of Richard Parkes Bonnington prompted Delacroix to make extensive, freely painted changes to the sky and distant landscape. Delacroix produced a second painting in support of the Greeks in their war for independence, this time referring to the capture of Missolonghi by Turkish forces in 1825. With

12528-612: Was derived out of a genuine fascination and admiration of Eastern cultures, not prejudice or malice. Orientalism refers to the Orient , in reference and opposition to the Occident ; the East and the West, respectively. The word Orient entered the English language as the Middle French orient . The root word oriēns , from the Latin Oriēns , has synonymous denotations : The eastern part of

12644-625: Was entranced by the people and their clothes, and the trip would inform the subject matter of a great many of his future paintings. He believed that the North Africans, in their attire and their attitudes, provided a visual equivalent to the people of Classical Rome and Greece: The Greeks and Romans are here at my door, in the Arabs who wrap themselves in a white blanket and look like Cato or Brutus... He managed to sketch some women secretly in Algiers , as in

12760-437: Was eventually redone by Vincent Van Gogh . Delacroix reflected on religion through his paintings, and his religious works often show subtle details to Biblical texts. While considered an unbeliever or agnostic, his journal and paintings reveal an openness and receptiveness to spirituality through his art. In 1832, Delacroix traveled to Spain and North Africa in company with the diplomat Charles-Edgar de Mornay , as part of

12876-477: Was getting better and returned to his house in the country. But by 15 July he was sick enough to again see his doctor, who said he could do nothing more for him. By then, the only food he could eat was fruit. Delacroix realized the seriousness of his condition and wrote his will, leaving a gift for each of his friends. For his trusted housekeeper, Jenny Le Guillou, he left enough money for her to live on while ordering everything in his studio to be sold. He also inserted

12992-524: Was greatly struck by what he saw, comparing the North African way of life to that of the Ancient Romans, and continued to paint subjects from his trip on his return to France. Like many later Orientalist painters, he was frustrated by the difficulty of sketching women, and many of his scenes featured Jews or warriors on horses. However, he was apparently able to get into the women's quarters or harem of

13108-598: Was largely concerned with the areas of Central Asia that Russia was conquering during the century, and also in historical painting with the Mongols who had dominated Russia for much of the Middle Ages, who were rarely shown in a good light. The explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky played a major role in popularising an exotic view of "the Orient" and advocating imperial expansion. " The Five " Russian composers were prominent 19th-century Russian composers who worked together to create

13224-410: Was not able to procreate at the time of Eugène's conception. Talleyrand , who was a friend of the family and successor of Charles Delacroix as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and whom the adult Eugène resembled in appearance and character, considered himself as his real father. After assuming his office as foreign minister, Talleyrand dispatched Delacroix to The Hague in the capacity of French ambassador to

13340-629: Was nothing in Germany to correspond to the Anglo-French presence in India, the Levant, North Africa. Moreover, the German Orient was almost exclusively a scholarly, or at least a classical, Orient: it was made the subject of lyrics, fantasies, and even novels, but it was never actual." According to Suzanne L. Marchand , German scholars were the "pace-setters" in oriental studies. Robert Irwin wrote that "until

13456-402: Was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire , "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." Together with Ingres, Delacroix is considered one of the last old Masters of painting and is one of the few who was ever photographed. As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of

#138861