Image source: Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). View source
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment
Eugène Delacroix · Romanticism & Landscape
- Artist
- Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
- Date
- 1834
- Dimensions
- 180 x 229 cm
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Location
- Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
Women of Algiers shows three women in a dim, richly decorated room, relaxing on cushions around a water pipe, while a Black servant draws back a curtain. Delacroix painted it after his journey to North Africa in 1832.
A closer look
During his visit to Algiers, Delacroix was allowed, exceptionally, to enter the women's quarters of a house, an experience that deeply impressed him. Back in Paris, he recreated the scene from his sketches with glowing colour: the shimmering fabrics, the jewels, the tiles, the light filtering through a window. Unlike many later 'Orientalist' fantasies, the women are calm and introspective rather than seductive. The vibrant juxtaposition of colours fascinated later painters, from Renoir to Picasso, who painted fifteen variations on the subject.
