French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861-1956: Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference

247 Pages·2021·22.754 MB·English

by  Mary Kelly

French Women Orientalist Artists,
1861–1956
This book is the first full-length study dedicated to French women Orientalist artists.
Mary Kelly has gathered primary documentation relating to seventy-two women
artists whose works of art can be placed in the canon of French Orientalism between
1861 and 1956. Bringing these artists together for the first time and presenting
close contextual analyses of works of art, attention is given to artists’ cross-cultural
interactions with painted/sculpted representations of the Maghreb particularly in
Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. Using an interdisciplinary ‘open platform of discussion’
approach, Kelly builds on established theory which places emphases on the gendered
gaze. This entails a discussion on women’s painted perspectives of and contacts with
Muslim women as well as various Maghrebi cultures and land—all the while remaining
mindful of the subject position of the French artist and the problematic issues which
can arise when discussing European-made ‘ethnographic’ scenes. Kelly argues that
French women’s perspectives of the Maghreb differed from the male gaze and were
informed by their artistic training and social positions in Europe. In so doing, French
women’s socio-cultural modernity is also examined. Moreover, executed between
1861 and 1956, the works of art presented show influences of Modernism; therefore,
this book also pays close attention to progressive Realism and Naturalism in art and
the Orientalist shift into Modernist subject matter and form. Through this research
into French women Orientalists, Kelly engages with important discussions on the
crossing view of the historical female other with the cultural other, artistic hybridity
and influence in art as well as the postcolonial response to French activities in colonial
Algeria and the protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco. On giving focus to women’s
art and the impact of cross-cultural interchanges, this book rethinks Orientalism in
French art.
This book will be of particular interest to scholars in the history of art, gender
studies, history, and Middle Eastern and North African studies.
Mary Kelly (née Healy) is a Lecturer in Art History, Theory and Gallery Studies and
Director of the MA in Global Gallery Studies at University College Cork, Ireland. She
is also a Research Associate at the Centre for Gender and Women’s Studies, Trinity
College Dublin.
Cover image: Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959), Intérieur à Beni-Ounif (Sud-Oranais)
[Interior Beni Ounif (South Oran)] c.1909, oil on canvas, 121.9 x 166.1 cm, private collection.
© Tajan.
Routledge Research in Gender and Art
Routledge Research in Gender and Art is a new series in art history and visual studies,
focusing on gender, sexuality, and feminism. For a full list of titles in this series, please
visit www.routledge.com/Routledge-Research-in-Gender-and-Art/book-series/RRGA
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Edited by Kerry Greaves
Transnational Perspectives on Feminism and Art, 1960–1985
Edited by Jen Kennedy, Trista E. Mallory and Angelique Szymanek
French Women Orientalist Artists, 1861–1956
Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions of Difference
Mary Kelly
Iconic Works of Art by Feminists and Gender Activists
Mistress-Pieces
Edited by Brenda Schmahmann
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/Routledge-
Research-in-Gender-and-Art/book-series/RRGA
French Women Orientalist Artists,
1861–1956
Cross-Cultural Contacts and Depictions
of Difference
Mary Kelly
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Mary Kelly
The right of Mary Kelly to be identified as author of this work has been asserted
by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
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trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kelly, Mary (Art historian), author.
Title: French women orientalist artists, 1861-1956 :
cross-cultural contacts and depictions of difference / Mary Kelly.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York : Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021008556 (print) | LCCN 2021008557 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032027784 (paperback) | ISBN 9781472440310 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003185130 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Orientalism in art. | Women artists—France—History—
19th century. | Women artists—France—History—20th century. |
North Africans in art. | Women in art.
Classification: LCC N8217.E88 K45 2021 (print) | LCC N8217.E88 (ebook) |
DDC 709.2/52—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008556
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021008557
ISBN: 978-1-4724-4031-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-02778-4 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-18513-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Joseph

Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Defining ‘Orientalism’ 2
Locating Women Orientalists: empirical research and the Salons
of Paris 4
‘Open platform of discussion’: an approach to the heterogeneous
Orientalist debate 7
Ways of seeing: the gendered gaze upon the historical ‘Orient’ 13
1 M arie Elisabeth Aimée Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959):
Interior Depictions of Maghrebi Weavers 29
Artist biography 31
North African weaver paintings 36
2 Interior Representations of Maghrebi Women 59
‘Oriental women’ in the interior: stereotypical representations in
European art and the political debate 60
From academic to modern: women Orientalists’ renderings of
interior female spaces 69
The paradoxes of painting ‘the Muslim woman behind the veil’ 96
3 Describing the Maghrebi Exterior:
Women Orientalists’ Depictions of Life and Landscape 115
The political dilemma of painting the exterior Maghrebi world 120
The Maghrebi exterior world as described by women Orientalists:
from the rural desert to the urban city 125
Rural nomadic life: French women’s painted and sculpted
representations 126
viii Contents
Rural village and town life: the legacy of Dinet’s ‘outsider
sensibility’ 137
Urban city life: artists’ search for ‘Oriental’ naturalism in
the midst of modernisation 153
4 Modernism in the Works of French Women Orientalists 172
Early twentieth-century modernist Orientalists 172
Women Orientalists and the avant-garde: treatment of the female
figure and space by means of modernist form 174
Conclusion 194
Bibliography 200
Index 218
Illustrations
1.1 Carte de Visite of Marie Aimée Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959),
undated (pre-1900), 12 x 6 cm. 30
1.2 Engraving: M. Baude, Le Monde Illustré, 9 March 1895. Engraved
reproduction of Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959), Le Tissage:
Intérieur Arabe à Constantine (Algérie) [The Weavers: Arab Interior
in Constantine (Algeria)], c.1894, painting oil on canvas, 148.3 x
119.9 cm. 34
1.3 Marie Lucas Robiquet (1858–1959), Intérieur Arabe à Ourellal,
Biskra [Arab Interior in Ourellal, Biskra], 1892, oil on canvas, 44.8
x 52.6 cm, private collection. 35
1.4 Marie Lucas Robiquet (1858–1959), Tisseuses à Gabès, Tunisie,
[Weavers in Gabes, Tunisia], 1906, oil on canvas, 122 x 94 cm,
private collection. 37
1.5 The Berber Village of Chenini, Southern Tunisia, 2009. 39
1.6 Étienne Dinet (1861–1929), Baigneuse dans la Palmeraie [Bather by
the Palmery], undated (c. 1900–1910), oil on canvas, 71 x 59 cm,
private collection. 43
1.7 Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959), Intérieur à Beni-Ounif (Sud-
Oranais) [Interior Beni Ounif (South Oran)] c.1909, oil on canvas,
121.9 x 166.1 cm, private collection. 46
1.8 Gustave Guillaumet (1840–1887), Tisseuse à Bou-Saâda (Algérie)
[Weavers in Bou-Saâda (Algeria)], undated, oil on canvas, 55 x
75 cm, Musée d’Orsay. 49
1.9 Gustave Guillaumet (1840–1887), Tisseuse à Bou-Saâda (Algérie)
[Weavers in Bou-Saâda (Algeria)], undated, oil on canvas, 94.5 x
111.3 cm, Musée d’Orsay. 49
1.10 Marie Lucas-Robiquet (1858–1959), Artist draft: Intérieur à Beni-
Ounif, Algérie [Interior in Beni-Ounif, Algeria], c.1909, oil on
canvas. 121.9 x 166.1 cm, private collection. 51
2.1 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Odalisque Algerienne [Algerian
Odalisque], 1870, oil on canvas, 69.2 x 122.6 cm, National Gallery
of Art, Washington, DC. 65
2.2 Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919), Escalier, Alger [Stairway,
Algiers], 1882, oil on canvas, 73 x 60.5 cm, private collection. 66