Orientalism and the Photographs of Delacroix
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Orientalism and the Photographs of Eugène Delacroix: An Exploration of Vision, Identity, and Difference in Nineteenth Century France A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Elizabeth J. DeVito June 2011 © 2011 Elizabeth J. DeVito. All Rights Reserved. 2 This thesis titled Orientalism and the Photographs of Eugène Delacroix: An Exploration of Vision, Identity, and Difference in Nineteenth Century France by ELIZABETH J. DEVITO has been approved for the School of Art and the College of Fine Arts by Jaleh Mansoor Assistant Professor of Art History Charles A. McWeeny Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT DEVITO, ELIZABETH J., M.A., June 2011, Art History Orientalism and the Photographs of Eugène Delacroix: An Exploration of Vision, Identity, and Difference in Nineteenth Century France Director of Thesis: Jaleh Mansoor This thesis investigates some of the experimental Orientalist photographs of Eugène Delacroix from 1854. I explore these works through a post-colonial, feminist, and Lacanian psychoanalytical perspective, in order to understand how these unusual photographs operate in nineteenth century, bourgeois France. The first chapter discusses the images of Delacroix, who is canonized as a painter, as they both create and are produced by a newly emergent Spectacle culture supported by the rapidly proliferating, fairly young, medium of photography. The second chapter recognizes the bodies of the nude female figures as sites of imperialist and misogynistic ideologies to develop, which in turn justifies colonial enterprises in the Near East. The final chapter seeks to explore the materiality of the photograph, or more specifically, the nude female image, seen as both Romantically traditional and erotic via the gaze. This thesis is therefore a theoretical study of Delacroix’s photographic objects as producers of Orientalist and imperialistic ideologies, formulated out of the Western imagination. Approved: _____________________________________________________________ Jaleh Mansoor Assistant Professor of Art History 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Jaleh Mansoor, for her dedication, knowledge, and time — without whom, this thesis would not be possible. I would also like to thank my committee members, Dr. Joseph Lamb and Dr. Laura Larson for their indispensable contributions to this endeavor. Additionally, I want to show my gratitude to my parents and colleagues for their love and support. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... 4 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 6 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: The Photographic Spectacle of the Orient ...................................................... 20 The Orient on Exhibition ...................................................................................... 32 Gender Performance and the Object of Castration ............................................... 38 The Gaze of the Operator-Spectator ..................................................................... 49 Chapter 2: The Body of the Orient ................................................................................... 54 Dark Women ......................................................................................................... 56 Body Language ..................................................................................................... 72 Chapter 3: Orientalist Vision ............................................................................................ 83 Romantic Figures .................................................................................................. 86 The Pleasurable Eye .............................................................................................. 91 The Non-western Model ....................................................................................... 97 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 105 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 110 6 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Eugène Durieu, Nude, salted paper print, ca. 1855 .......................................113 Figure 2: Eugène Durieu, Female Portrait with Bird, salted paper print, ca. 1855 ......113 Figure 3: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male seated forward, nude female kneeling backwards, calotype, 1854 ...............................................................................................................114 Figure 4: Eugène Delacroix, Reclining female nude, nude male looks, calotype, 1854 ..... .......................................................................................................................................115 Figure 5: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male reclining, nude female facing forward, calotype, 1854...............................................................................................................................115 Figure 6: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male standing, holding the shoulder of a nude female model, calotype, 1854 ...................................................................................................116 Figure 7: Eugène Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus, oil on canvas, 1827 ...........117 Figure 8: Eugène Delacroix, Female Nude sitting on a couch, her head supported by an arm, calotype, 1854.......................................................................................................118 Figure 9: Eugène Delacroix, Female nude sitting on a couch, her arms raised, calotype, 1854...............................................................................................................................119 Figure 10: Eugène Delacroix, Louis d’Orléans Unveiling his Mistress, oil on canvas, 1825-1826 .....................................................................................................................120 Figure 11: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male sitting on a leopard skin, standing female nude, calotype, 1854 ...............................................................................................................121 Figure 12: Eugène Delacroix, Standing female nude, nude male sitting supported by an arm, calotype, 1854.......................................................................................................121 Figure 13: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, The Grande Odalisque, oil on canvas, 1814 .......................................................................................................................................122 Figure 14: Eugène Delacroix, The Odalisque, oil on wood, 1857 ................................122 Figure 15: Michelangelo, Ignudi (details), fresco, ca. 1510 .........................................123 7 Figure 16: Eugène Delacroix, The Women of Algiers in Their Apartment, oil on canvas, 1834...............................................................................................................................123 Figure 17: Francis Galton, The Jewish Type, photographic print, 1883 .......................124 Figure 18: Ernest Chantre, ‘Fellahin de Gizeh,’ photographic print, 1898-1899 .........124 Figure 19: J.E. Hannauer, A young married woman from Bethlehem, photographic print, 1902...............................................................................................................................124 Figure 20: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male and female standing forward, calotype, 1854 .. .......................................................................................................................................125 Figure 21: Eugène Delacroix, The Massacre at Chios, oil on canvas, 1824 ................125 Figure 22: Eugène Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People: July 28, 1830, oil on canvas, 1831...............................................................................................................................126 Figure 23: Théodore Géricault, Raft of the Medusa, oil on canvas, 1819 ....................126 Figure 24: Édouard Manet, Olympia, oil on canvas, 1863 ...........................................127 Figure 25: Anonymous, stereoscopic photograph, 1855 ..............................................127 Figure 26: ND Postcard, probably Algiers, Young Moorish Woman and Kabyle Woman, photographic postcard, late nineteenth century ............................................................128 Figure 27: ND Postcard, probably Algiers, Young Moorish Girl, photographic postcard, late nineteenth century ..................................................................................................128 Figure 28: Eugène Delacroix, Nude male and female sitting in profile, calotype, 1854 .... .......................................................................................................................................129 Figure 29: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Moorish Bath, oil on canvas, ca. 1880 ........................130 Figure 30: Probably Nuredin & Levin, Cairo, Arabian Woman with