Analysis of the various ways in which Western women’s Orientalism reaffirmed and/or challenged gender categories and Orientalist tropes essay
The analysis of the various ways in which Western women Orientalists reaffirmed and challenged gender categories and Orientalist tropes helps to better understand the nature of Orientalism. According to Brian Singleton, “women for the Orientalist painters became the embodied iconic representation of what was both wished and feared”(p. 70). Women Orientalists made it possible to feel the mysterious beauty of oriental women. A famous French art historian, Philippe Julian, wrote that “Orientalism is only a phase in the cult of Exotic” (qtd. in Kuehn, 2011, p. 31).
Comparison of the different responses of two women Orientalists focusing on the analysis of specific works of art and their critical reception
It is known that women Orientalists differed in their views on Orientalist culture. Some of them were focused on the representation of harem life, while others paid due attention to the female beauty. Nevertheless, the representation of women’s look provides special relationship to the female spectators. According to Reina Lewis (1996), “they challenged the idea of a women as an object, rather than owner, of the gaze by showing female figures who were looked at first by a female spectator and by representing them contrary to the generic codes of passivity” (p. 165). Most women depicted in Orientalist works were veiled in mysterious environment.
Henriette Browne’s response
Henriette Browne is one of the French artists of the 19-th century, who managed to succeed in evaluation and exploration of Orientalism. Actually, Henriette Browne’s art challenged the 19-th century Western tropes concerning the east and its treatment of women”(Robinson, 1999, p. 201). The artist offers a feminized vision of the Oriental women and harem life. It is known that harems were the areas that other men could never enter, and many Orientalist artists used their fantasy and imagination to depict the atmosphere of harem life (Hatem, 1989). Harem images created by Henriette Browne in her paintings The Arrival In The Harem At Constantinople and Dancers in an Arab courtyard provide treatment of subjects that can be viewed as a domestic narrative paining for the western public (Inge, 2010). The artist’s harem interior scenes “contrast from harem images composed by European male artists, descriptions penned in travelogues by European female writers, and did not conform to the prescribed characteristics attributed to the Oriental genre in European art” (Inge, 2010, p. 1).
According to Reina Lewis (1996), Browne is conceptualized on the representation of the actual scenes of the harem life, acting as both a “consumer of the scene” and an “agent of its representation” (p. 165). In other words, her gaze on the Oriental women and harem life is “both as woman and a Westerner” (Lewis, 1996, p. 87). Henriette Browne challenges Western assumptions about the so-called “otherness” of the Orient. She portrays the Oriental domestic scenes as analogy for Westerner’s domestic scenes. This approach to the vision of Orientalism creates a threat to the conventional Westerners’ assumptions of absolute difference.
One more painting by Henriette Browne is A North African Fellah (1867, medium: oil on canvas, dimensions: 38Ѕ x 29 in. (98 x 73.7 cm.)
Henriette Browne depicts a young North African woman using her talent of an artist to represent imaged in naturalistic style. Her painting “rests on the innate femininity of the woman herself: the natural distinction and the modesty of the woman” (Lewis, 2013, p. 99). Browne suggests that gender is significant in painting, stressing on the role of femininity in human society. In other words, she promotes femininity in art. Some art critics state that Browne’s Orientalism can be viewed as “an addition to male field” (Lewis, 2013, p. 99).
Henriette Browne’s work Dancers in an Arab courtyard (19-th century, dimensions: 11.93 X 16.37 in. Medium: pencil and wash), portrays harem scenes, placing emphasis on the role of femininity in the life of the Oriental society.
Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann’s response
Anna Maria Elisabeth Lisinska Jerichau-Baumann (1819 –1881), a famous Danish painter, was one of the women Orientalists who travelled to the East. In 1869-1870, she visited the harems of the Ottoman Empire and managed to paint various scenes of harem life from her personal point of view. Her unique painting Egyptian Fellah woman with her child (1872, Medium: Oil on canvas, Dimensions: 98.5 x 129.2 cm (38.8 x 50.9 in)) depicts a young woman dressed in oriental clothing and her sleeping baby. The artist does not dress the oriental women in a veil. She wants the audience to see natural image of a female beauty, without any mystery.
The history of Orientalist painting provides great insight into the cultural position of women Orientalists. According to Mary Roberts (2007), Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann “provides us with a lovely account of a transition between European and Ottoman cultures”(p. 3). Actually, her art reflects the use of compelling metaphors that help to better understand the Ottoman culture. She visited the elite Ottoman harems to depict the natural position of women in the Ottoman Empire. Her fantasies of the harem life are mixed with her desire to modernize Ottoman elites to refashion their self-images. Her painting Princess Nazili Hanum, Stambul (1875, Height: 132 cm (51.97 in.), Width: 158 cm (62.2 in.), oil on canvas), represents a mysterious female beauty that is unveiled. The young woman with a smile on her face is in the state of euphoria.
Jerichau-Baumann has a unique attitude towards the East, harem life and harem women. According to Mary Roberts (2007), Jerichau-Baumann’s Orientalism redefines and reaffirms Orientalist categories” (p. 139). In her works of art, she displays a complex range of attitudes toward the harem in general and princess Nazli in particular. As a matter of fact, the artist demonstrates her ethnographic curiosity for Western public. Jerichau-Baumann’ letters, portraits and paintings “potentially challenge the western sexualized harem stereotype and her diary incorporates a complex mix of social and sexual discourse” (Roberts, 2007, p. 139). At the same time, “many of her fantasy paintings reaffirm the trope of the sensual harem beauty” (Roberts, 2007, p. 139). For example, Jerichau-Baumann’ fantasy displayed in her works of art, challenges the established Western gender categories (Roberts, 2000).
In the painting An Egyptian Pottery Seller near Gizeh (1876-1878, Height: 92 cm (36.22 in.), Width: 114 cm (44.88 in.), medium: oil on canvas), Jerichau-Baumann depicts an oriental woman without veil, dressed in the traditional oriental clothing. She sells pottery in Egyptian market. The scene of everyday life helps the audience to learn more about the Oriental culture and traditions.
Conclusion
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that there are various ways in which Western women’s Orientalism reaffirmed and/or challenged gender categories and Orientalist tropes. The different responses of the two women Orientalists discussed in this paper are focused on the analysis of specific works of art and their critical reception. The works of women Orientalists help to discuss women’s roles in the Oriental culture and women’s involvement in social life. Henriette Browne challenges the Western male artists’ assumptions of the stability of the Orientalist gaze. In fact, the gender perspective is of great importance in the analysis of Orientalism. Both Henriette Browne and Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann criticize male artists’ perception of the Oriental culture, their pattern of the Western hegemony over the East. Their fantasy is associated with enjoyment and ideal female purity.
