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First Painting:
Photo: 2
9
.
Painting “Carpet Merchant” is an oil-on-canvas painting sized 68,74 x
86,04 cm. White background carpet hanging down the balcony on the painting
representing a carpet market, is a portrayal of Afyon-Başmakçı carpet
10
.
There is a composition formed with carpets laid on the floor on the
foreground and a carpet hanging down the balcony, another hung on the wall on
the background. Additionally, colour balance of the composition was provided with
a group of three people on the balcony, a black man right under the balcony and
people in white clothes on the right side of the painting.
The colours used in the painting enabled orientalist painters, who are
known as “neo-colourists” to get out of the colour and lighting formulas of western
painting schools. The painting stands by its representation of the bright light and
emphasis on the bright colours of west.
Second Painting:
Photo: 3
11
.
It is the portrait of “Veiled Circassian Lady”. The carpet is laid on the table.
It is the portrayal of a Kars-Kazak carpet, only a small part from the middle area
can be seen.
9
https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-leon-gerome
,24.02.2017, 14.06.
10
AYTAÇ, Ahmet, “Oryantalist Ressam Jean-Léon Gérôme’nin Tablolarında Tasvirlenmiş
Türk El Dokumaları”,
Turansam Dergisi, S. 13, C. 4, Kars, 2012, s. 100.
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The painting is included in the figured compositions group, which an
orientalist painting style. The background, which gradually goes from red-brown to
maroon, and the woman figure with a hookah tube in her hand in traditional
clothes, with a cleavage emphasis and her face covered with a black veil carry the
general characteristics of orientalism movement.
In the painting, the colours are in a complementary relationship, and bright
and vivid colour scale is balanced with dark value and neutral effect colours.
Third Painting:
Photo: 4
12
.
Oil on canvas painting “Cleopatra and Caesar” was painted in 1886. The
carpet the slave is trying to lay under Cleopatra’s feet is a Heriz style Uşak
carpet
13
. On the right-bottom-middle part of the foreground, Cleopatra stands with
her slave, and on the left background Caesar studies at the desk and observes the
situation with his gestures and mimes. At the furthest background right behind
Cleopatra, a group of people talking among each other provides the unity and
additionally, the red and yellow carpet in front of Cleopatra, which the slave is
trying to lay, relates with Caesar’s clothes in terms of colours but on the other hand
the hieroglyphs on the all addresses to Egypt and east.
Fourth Painting:
Fotoğraf: 5
14
.
12
https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-leon-gerome
,24.02.2017, 14.06.
13
AYTAÇ, Ahmet, a.g.m., s. 102.
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Oil on canvas painting “Carpet Merchant in Cairo” painted in 1896, is sized
55,9x81 cm and exhibited at Brooklyn Museum. Cream coloured with navy
background carpet portrayed on the back of carpet merchant in carpet market in
Cairo is a medallion Uşak carpet.
The painting portrays a composition of a single figure with a carpet he is
trying to sell, in a place right in front of an architectural form, which can be a market
place, and on the background the daily life of a people trying to shop. The
merchant portrayed in a realistic style in local clothes and his carpet with red,
yellow and brown background, and covered in flower motifs and calligraphic
writings, forms the main element of the painting. The merchant on the foreground
and the textile products he is in are portrayed in bright colours, while the figures
and objects in the background are presented in pastel colours, and also in shades
of white, which can be seen many works of Gerome. With the effects of the
calligraphic elements, which can be seen partially, the painting can be considered
to be formed in an eclectic style with the drafts of an existing photograph.
Fifth Painting:
Fotoğraf: 6
15
.
“The Terrace of the Seraglio” is a portrayal of pool-bath painted with an
orientalist imagination. The medallion carpet, on which the musicians and the
ladies are sitting, is an Uşak carpet.
The painting can be seen as an imaginary presentation of eroticism and
undisclosed fantasies, which can be found in works of almost every orientalism
period western artists. This perspective, which mostly belongs to the phantasies of
European men, is the reflection of the idea that harem women being bounded to a
closed space and belonged to a “master”, in the European fantasy.
CONCLUSION
Orientalist travellers and painters’ perceptions of the east combined with
their imagination were reflected in their writings and paintings. This kind of semi-
imaginary descriptions are seen many of Gerome’s works.
The present paper evaluates Turkish carpets portrayed in five of Gerome’s
paintings in terms of regional and colour features.
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https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-leon-gerome
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