Draft:Harem Scene

A digital picture of Harem Scene, taken from the Memorial Art Gallery website. Digitally retouched to be darker than the original.

Harem Scene is a narrative painting by Austro-Hungarian painter, Daniel Israel.

The scene painted depicts an example of Orientalism, a popular facet of paintings at the time. Here, the subject on the left, labeled as a young girl, tries on jewelry while the subject on the right, labeled as an older woman is seen to give approving looks. The old lady is implied to be the young lady's maid. The depiction of a secluded corner of a spacious architectural interior allowed Israel.

During the 19th century, many artists were encouraged to travel to Asia and Africa as those lands were being colonized by European countries. Many of these artists chose to portray the people of these lands in settings and poses that demonstrated the perceived difference between their circumstances and Europeans'. Women, especially, were held up as examples of sensuality in ways Europeans were not.

Subject

Color and perspective

Harem Scene, by Daniel Israel, is an art nouveau-era painting that depicts the interaction of two main subjects. The painting makes use of color contrast to implicate relationships between the subjects and their background. Arrangements of lines guide the viewer’s attention throughout the piece. Israel makes use of balanced spatial organization to depict a highly interactive piece. At first glance, the viewer notices the person on the left, one of the main subjects of the piece. This person is clad in white, with light blue around her bust. Although the white of the subject’s dress is similar to the white of their headscarf, there are visible differences. The skirt of the dress contains darker beige textures that form a pattern of lines. The headscarf also has shade variations and the light hits it at multiple angles, whereas the dress does not as much. The subject on the right is wearing red, both in her headscarf and her dress. She is sitting on a yellow object that disappears into the right side of the piece. The direction of the light is not obvious. However, the lighting is very soft, so it is assumed that it is coming from a natural source. This somewhat neutralizes any contours or creases in the fabric object of the piece, as the shade contrast is not as stark as it would be if there was a synthetic source of light. According to the tombstone, the subject in white on the left side of the piece is a young girl, and the subject on the right is an old lady.

Symmetry

Harem Scene makes use of visual and physical symmetry and organizational differences to make the piece interactive to the viewer. The white color of the young girl’s dress and headscarf matches the white of the background on the right side of the painting, alluding to some visual consistency. In contrast, the subject on the left is wearing red in her headscarf and dress, matching the drapes in the background on the left side. This creates a sort of color blocking that further builds on the sense of visual symmetry. In addition, the color blocking of the background creates a sense of spatial symmetry. The axis of symmetry is located at the vertical center of the piece, where the drapes end and the white background of the piece begins. This way, there are three distinctive layers in this piece; the foreground, which contains the two subjects, the middle ground which contains the drapery and the background which contains the white architecture. Another, more minor line of symmetry is around the horizontal center of the piece, along the top of the old lady’s head, her outstretched hand, and the bottom of the young girl’s bust. This gives us four distinct quadrants in the piece.

Space and organization

The space of the piece is organized in a balanced way. The subject on the left is seen standing with her arms behind her head, whereas the subject on the right has her arms out. The subject on the left has her arms placed behind her head, near her neck. The imaginary lines created by the angle of her arm are parallel to the bar of the building in the background. In addition, another line is created by the angle of her eyes as she views the other subject, the person on the right. The line created by the subject on the left’s arm is in parallel with the line created by the angle of the hand of the subject on the right, as it is outstretched towards the subject on the left.

Subjects

Although the exhibition label implies the subject on the left is the lady's maid, there is no actual evidence of this being true. The subject could have more of a familial relation to the subject on the left, such as being her grandmother or aunt. Another option is that the subject could also have more of a professional relationship with her, as she could be a shop owner who is selling her pieces of jewelry. However, there is no evidence that confirms any of these hypotheses as the artist did not mention anything about their relationship.

From the head covering of the subjects, the subjects are suggested to be Muslim or Jewish. Seeing as though the piece is titled Harem Scene, we can further assume that the subjects are Muslim, as harems were used mainly by Muslim women. Harems were mainly used by female members of a family, so this could imply that the older lady is the younger girl's grandmother, or aunt.

Orientalism and location

The location of the piece is unknown, but based on the clothing of the subjects and the artist's own time spent in the Middle East, it can be assumed that the piece is located in the Middle East. Most notably, the turban worn by both subjects implies that this may be located in the northern section of the Middle East, closer to Turkey and the Balkans. This can be further eluded by Israel's time spent there after graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. This matter is unconfirmed.

In art history, literature, and cultural studies, orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the "Eastern world" (East of Europe) by writers, designers, and artists from the "Western world"(Europe and West of Europe). Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East, was one of the main specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes.

Criticism of Orientalism

Edward Said's Orientalism, published in 1978, sparked academic discourse to use the term 'Orientalism' when referring to a condescending Western view of Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, the West essentializes these societies as underdeveloped and backward—fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced to increase the imperial power of Western nations. The implicit idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior is opposite to that of Eastern societies, is stated by Said. This allowed Western imagination to view 'Eastern' cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization.

In addition, Orientalism ideals are founded on the hypersexualization of women who lived in those areas. Oftentimes, orientalist paintings depict women as half-clad, or nude, harping on any sexual themes.

Other examples of Orientalist art include Women of Algiers, Grande Odalisque, and The Slave Market.

Title

The title of the piece, Harem Scene, implies that the relationship between the two subjects is more professional than thought. Harems are spaces especially dedicated to women in a Muslim family. Harem life was a main subject of Orientalist paintings of the time. Harems, especially Ottoman harems, were inaccessible to European males. This inaccessibility aided the perpetuation of the reputation of the harem as purely sexual, and even hypersexual. This misrepresentation contributed to imperialistic discourse that solidified the East's position as inferior to the West. New research shows that harem women were able to control the depiction of their personalized, highlighting how nineteenth-century art pieces of the harem were developed from a set of cross-cultural exchanges and negotiations between male Orientalists, female European travelers, and Ottoman women.

Artist

Little is known about the Painter, Daniel Israel. Through public records, it is known that he was born on January 2, 1859, in Vienna and died on April 24, 1901, in the same city. His parents were Hungarian, and Israel worked as a businessman before enrolling in art school under the advice of Johann Caspar Herterich and Otto Seitz. In 1885, he traveled to Bosnia, then to Constantinople, Egypt and Palestine. He would often make sketches of his time in these countries and paint them in his Munich studio. Harem Scene is the only known work of Israel that is in a museum or exhibition. He later lived in Munich and died in a sanatorium after two years of mental illness. He painted small-format landscapes, city views, and genre paintings.

Bibliography

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Categories:

• Orientalist paintings
• 19th-century paintings