Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem)
| Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem) | ||
 Parisian Women in Algerian Costume | ||
| Artist: | Pierre-Auguste Renoir | |
| Year: | 1872 | |
| Medium: | Oil on canvas | |
| Dimensions: | 156 cm × 129 cm (61 in × 51 in) | |
| Location: | National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo Japan | |
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.
Homage to Delacroix
In the 1870s, Renoir temporarily rejected the realism of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet in favor of the color 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 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 models after failing to obtain adequate access to women's accommodation during his trip to Algiers in 1832.
Roger Benjamin described The Harem as a "naturalist demythologization of the Orient" and like a pastiche. It was rejected for the Salon of 1872, which Benjamin argues resulted in the end of Renoir's experiments with Orientalism in the 1870s. Although Algerian costume and culture were well known in France in the mid-nineteenth century due to French colonial involvement in the country, Renoir did not visit Algeria until 1881.
Provenance
Renoir was not fond of The Harem, describing it to Ambroise Vollard as a "grande machine", a large academic composition. He moved studios and left it behind, hoping his former landlady would get rid of it, but he eventually had to take it back, and it was sold in a lot of eleven works that fetched only 500 francs.
The painting was acquired by Hyacinthe-Eugène Meunier (Murer) of Paris. E. Fasquelle, Paris (before 1912); Bernheim-Jeune, Paris (purchased by Eugène Fasquelle, 4 October 1913); Bernheim-Jeune fils (bought by Bernheim-Jeune, 26 January 1914); Durand-Ruel, Paris (bought by Bernheim-Jeune fils, 31 Dec. 1921); Kojiro Matsukata (bought at Durand-Ruel, 31 December 1921(?)); Sequestered by the French government, 1944; Returned to Japan, 1959.
- More information is available at [ Wikipedia:Parisian_Women_in_Algerian_Costume_(The_Harem) ]
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