1872
oil
canvas
From the collection of National Museum of Western Art
Parisian Women in Algerian Costume is a 1872 oil by Auguste Renoir, a Impressionism work, depicting Orientalist Painting, held at National Museum of Western Art.
This painting shows four women in a room, dressed in Algerian costumes. They are sitting and standing, looking at each other or at something on the floor. The women are wearing colorful clothes and jewelry, and there are rugs and other objects around them. The painting has a warm, golden light, and the colors are rich and vibrant. The women's faces and bodies are painted in soft, gentle brushstrokes, giving them a sense of calm and serenity. The overall mood of the painting is one of quiet intimacy and beauty. If you like this painting, you might also enjoy exploring the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who was a master of capturing the beauty and elegance of everyday life.
Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem), sometimes known as Interior of a Harem in Montmartre (Parisian Women Dressed in Algerian costumes), is a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, completed 1872, which Renoir created in homage to Eugène Delacroix's Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834, Louvre). It was rejected for entry to the 1872 Paris Salon, disliked by the artist and eventually sold for a small sum as part of a larger lot. It is now in the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo.
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
In the 1870s, Renoir temporarily rejected the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet in favour of the colour and drama of his hero Delacroix. He painted The Harem in homage to Delacroix's Women of Algiers in their Apartment (1834, Louvre) which he later described as "the most beautiful picture in existence". The title of the picture acknowledged the artificial nature of much Orientalist painting by making it clear that these were Parisian women in costume. It may also be a humorous reference to the fact that Delacroix had been forced to paint Women of Algiers in the studio using French…
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The composition of Renoir's work is quite different from Delacroix's Women of Algiers. While Delacroix arranged his figures across the foreground, Renoir places his in a diagonal with a final indistinct figure at top right. The picture plane is tipped towards the spectator to the extent that the women look like they may slip down to the bottom of the picture. The two black-haired women at the front appear to be in subservient roles attending the blonde headed woman in the centre who is evidently being prepared for a sexual encounter. The woman on the right is holding up a mirror while the one…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Source: wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born on 25 February 1841 in Limoges, the son of a tailor and a seamstress.
See the richer artist page
