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Issues of 2008
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Theodore Chasseriau: “the orient of my own”
Favourite student of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, follower of Eugene Delacroix style, ChassÊriau integrated two extremes — graphic line of Ingres and the rich blistering colour palette of Delacroix. Unfortunately his reputation was always overshadowed by those dominant personalities of his days, as very often ChassÊriau was accused of an inability to define his own style in his pursuit of the two artists. His first orientalist painting of portrait genre of Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine, was severely criticized by Charles Baudelaire in his Salon de 1845: «The position he (ChassÊriau — O. N.) wants to create for himself between Ingres, whose student he was, and Delacroix, whom he seeks to plunder, is somewhat equivocal for everyone else and embarrassing for himself». Such a superficial attitude toward the artist’s style prevented critics and viewers from looking at his works with comprehensible eye for quite a long time. It is only nowadays we can truly appreciate and fully recognize the talent of the artist, identifying his own manner, so distinctively different from both Ingres and Delacroix. ChassÊriau’s early death in 1856, although after a long illness, «had certainly surprised everyone…», as Delacroix wrote in his diary after attending the artist’s funeral. Thus early death evokes a beautiful destiny interrupted before its pinnacle, we will never know to which heights and extremes the genius of the artist could have taken him. In his article in 1921 Raymond Escholier wrote: «ChassÊriau did not have to discover the Orient. He carried it within him». And indeed, after the artist’s travel to Algeria his «Orient within» emerged as series of beautiful paintings representing characters in real and imaginary environments, existing on the background of the juxtaposition of draperies and nudity, the play of light on modelling of the forms, jewellery and vibrant textiles, refined compositions and poses.
The idea of the trip was indeed in the air as ChassÊriau was a great admirer of Delacroix, whose works served as a model for XIXth century orientalists, and a close friend of orientalist landscape master Prosper Marilhat. The initiative became fully perceptible after the artist painted the portrait «Ali-Ben-Hamet, Caliph of Constantine and Chief of the Haractas, Followed by His Escort» (1845, Versailles, Musee National du Chateau), commissioned by the sitter during his visit to Paris in December 1844. A friendship grew from this commission and an invitation to ChassÊriau from Ali Ben Hamet to visit Algeria followed. On 11 May 1846 he arrived in Constantine, which the artist described in his letter as «… land … very beautiful and very new. I am living in the Thousand and One Nights …». From Constantine ChassÊriau continued to Algiers, characterizing it as «the only truly Arabian place left in Africa». By July 1846 the artist had returned to Paris, and although the trip was relatively short, the effect it had on him was quite persistent and continued till the end of his life. ChassÊriau’s excitement of the country was reflected in his letters from Algeria — «I look, I draw, and I take notes on this beautiful and unique land…». The Sotheby’s picture belongs to a group of harem paintings of the orientalist art movement. However, as Vincet PomarÊde, one of the authors of ChassÊriau’s catalogue «The Unknown Romantic», justly mentioned in his article — «a harem became a genre in its own right». The most famous set of ChassÊriau’s harem paintings, which can be described as a triptych successively showing a woman bathing, is well known: «Bath in a Seraglio» (1849 — Paris, Musee du Louvre), «Moorish Woman Leaving the Bath in the Seraglio» (1854, Strasbourg, Musee des Beaux Arts) and «Interieur oriental» (Sotheby’s sale 15 June 2004, lot 108) (Ill. 3). As well as Sotheby’s painting «Odalisque couchÊe» (1853), these artworks were not, of course, the first ChassÊriau’s paintings of nude subject. It is obvious that the imagery of the ideal female body developed during the artist’s early years under the influence of Ingres’s neoclassical forms. Describing ChassÊriau’s women, Jean-Louis Vaudoyer wrote in 1933: «Her elongated, firm and harmonious forms recall those of ancient goddesses, yet the wistfulness of her poses and gazes reveals anxieties and aspirations that were unknown in Antiquity». On the other hand the images of women painted in his later years were characterized not only by a classical formalism, but supported by his recently discovered luxury of colour, his love of rich materials and enchantment in the sensuality of the female body. In the Sotheby’s painting odalisque is depicted freshly clad after her bath reclining on cushions and listening to a musician. The scene in the paintings falls somewhere between the representation of classical exotic harem scenes, introduced by ChassÊriau’s teacher Ingres, brilliant representative of so-called studio orientalism, and intimate sensuality of ChassÊriau himself, achieving a harmony by confining Delacroix colour within Ingres’s drawing style.
Ingres’s influence is obvious by referring to his work «Odalisque with Female Slave» (1842, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery), painted nine years earlier than ChassÊriau’s odalisque. It represents similar scene composition, although in mirror reflection, of a lying odalisque with her hands stretched behind her head and a female slave playing musical instrument. Ingres’s painting, although ideal from a neoclassical point of view, is overloaded with an extra figure of a eunuch and unnecessary details of interior decoration, creating an ideal exotic imagery with odalisque, provocative, seductive and tempting, triumphing over time itself. Where ChassÊriau’s odalisque reflects his fondness of a real genuine woman, he made it possible for a soul to exist on canvas. Inspiration for such thrilling creation lies in artist’s actual life. The woman in the paintings, while not a physical representation of any, is nonetheless a personification of ChassÊriau’s passionate love affair with actress Alice Ozy and embodiment of his feelings and emotions. It was in 1848, when the actress first met the artist through their mutual friend Theophile Gautier, that a love affair followed, probably lasting until 1850. Passionate at least from ChassÊriau’s side it finished with a quarrel over one of the artist’s painting, leaving an unhealed wound in ChassÊriau’s heart and soul. It is known that Alice Ozy posed for a few of ChassÊriau’s paintings, one of them being «Bather Sleeping near a Spring» (1850, Avignon, Musee Calver). Described both by Theophile Gautier and Charles Hugo as a superior rival to Greek goddesses, what refers us to ChassÊriau early formed imagery of idealized women, Alice perfectly answered the artist’s vision of romanticize representation. The artwork, painted after three years of their romance and three years before his early death, is a winning recognition for the oeuvre of ThÊodore ChassÊriau, as well as a symbol of his everlasting passion.
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