“Snake Charmer”
This oil on canvas painting, titled “Snake Charmer”, is by the French Academic artist, Jean-Léon Gérôme, from circa 1879. This painting is a prime example of Orientalism when it was at its peak in Western European art.
Orientalism was an aspect of Academic art that imitated the styles of Middle Eastern culture in a stereotypical way. It was very popular in the nineteenth century, though it is highly controversial today. In France, Orientalism took off after Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and Syria. The French people really became exposed to Egyptology and were consumed with a fascination for everything Egyptian.
Gérôme visited Egypt several times himself between 1856 and 1869 and became enamored with the culture. He even witnessed the opening of the Suez Canal. Gérôme may have seen a snake charmer during his travels to Egypt. Snake charmers sometimes disrobed to show that the performance was authentic. Gérôme’s photo-realism painting offers such rich colors and exquisite detail, that the scene would seem to be authentic, but it is a conglomerate of different cultural stereotypes pieced together in a single image.
Gérôme painted this piece at his studio in Paris. It is a composite image based off of many sources, including photographs, and combines Ottoman with Egyptian cultural elements. The intricate turquoise wall in the background is based off of a wall lined with Iznik tiles from a wall in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul, Turkey. The stone floor is loosely based off of the floor within the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As in Cairo, Egypt. The figures in the painting are also a composite, and they are adorned with clothes based off of a variety of cultural styles from the Middle East and Asian countries. Even the snake itself more closely resembles a boa constrictor than a python.
“Snake Charmer” is currently on display at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in the United States.
For more on Jean-Léon Gérôme, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
