Artists like Jean-Léon Gérôme, John Frederick Lewis, and Frederick Arthur Bridgman sought a greater understanding of the indigenous cultures to varying degrees and returned again and again to distinctively Orientalist subject matter.
Mavi Boncuk |
Sargent’s travels to Tangiers, Cairo, Jerusalem, Bursa, and Istanbul typically resulted in studies of anonymous figures, they often paralleled his society portraits in compositional arrangement. John Singer
Sargent took two notable trips to the middle east during his lifetime; the first trip was to Greece, Egypt, and Turkey in 1890, while the second was to the-then Ottoman provinces of Syria and Palestine in 1905. These trips spurred Sargent to create a number of works of art concerning various subjects.
In the winter of 1890-91 Sargent went to Egypt with his mother and sisters (his father had died the spring before) for three months, and subsequently went on to Greece and Turkey. He sketched and painted ruins, architecture and decorative motifs, as well as Arab men and women. Sargent’s study of ancient Egyptian art clearly provided the visual vocabulary for the Boston Public Library project, Triumph of Religion, and his experience in Egypt sparked his imagination (Ormond & Kilmurray, Complete Paintings Vol V 216). His output of work—seven anonymous male studies, three studies of a female model, a highly-finished nude study of an Egyptian girl, and nearly thirty genre scenes and landscapes in oil and watercolor—only relate to the Library project in subject, not in style. For the murals, Sargent adopted a Beaux-Arts approach and incorporated motifs from Byzantine art, as well as early Italian mural painting. The palette is dark, the emphasis is on symbolism, and the effect is flat. Academic formula and studio finish are pervasive in the murals, but are not features of the work Sargent created while abroad. Door of a Mosque (1891, is representative of the types of oil sketches Sargent created in situ.
The painting is quietly energetic and the numerous veiled figures relate to one another authentically. This is an observed scene at a real location with real people. The canvas, like others from this painting excursion, differ from most Orientalist art in both this authenticity and the impressionistic, loose handling of paint as well as its restrained, limited palette. Over a dozen women are depicted nearly fully covered in dark abayas and mostly white niqabs. They are exiting the dark doorway of the Green Mosque21 and walking towards the viewer on an asymmetrically paved path (Ormond and Kilmurray, Complete Paintings Vol V 253).
The quick strokes and use of oil enable the figures to possess a quality of otherworldliness. Some robes are nearly translucent, creating a ghostly effect and conveying a sense of movement. Enough details are included to place the location of the scene and yet the details are secondary to the overall atmospheric results of the canvas. Sargent chose to crop out some of the most distinct architectural decorations—the building’s entrance features an elongated muqarnas and carved details surround the windows. Including the full height and width of the building would have dwarfed the figures. Sargent’s focus was on the overall impression scene: the women leaving the mosque are the focal point. His image is not an illustration suitable for a travelogue, but a snapshot from an artist’s lens.