Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps French (1803-1860)

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Image courtesy of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

A Turkish Merchant, ca. 1830's Watercolor and bodycolor with varnish on wove paper 23.9 x 18.2 cm WA 1963.7

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (1803-1860) was a French painter and printmaker. Decamps was very prolific and also was immensely popular during his lifetime.  His work—over 2,000 paintings, drawings and prints—covers a very large range of themes; military, religious, historical, Oriental, portraiture and animal studies.  It is difficult to categorize both his subject and style, but he definitely became well known and appreciated for his Oriental (basically Turkish) themes.

Already in the 17^th century there developed in Europe a strong taste for things of the East (Turkish/Persian/Arabic on the one hand and Chinese on the other).  The fascination with Turkey was particularly great.  The Ottoman Empire, an Islamic power, covered enormous territories—Asia Minor, North Africa, a good part of the Balkans—and was the prime force in that part of the world; and because of that geo-political position, it inspired among Europeans fear combined with curiosity and the excitement of the unknown and the exotic.

Through the 18^th and early 19^th centuries there existed a great number of artistic treatments of the Near East; with two prevailing themes: 1) big-canvas, heroic renditions of Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt, and 2) fairy tale-like, romantic depictions of Eastern rulers, warriors, beautiful women, and harem life.[i]

Decamps was probably the first European artist interested in the Orient who was drawn not to the fantastic or the heroic, but to everyday themes, and who consequently wanted to give his subjects a more realistic treatment.  In 1828 he traveled throughout the Near East and North Africa for a long period of time (actually he was the first major European artist who undertook an extensive tour of the area).  His travels in the East produced a large output of works dealing with Oriental subjects.  During his travels he sketched extensively and he also collected various Oriental accessories (such as weapons and clothes).  Upon his return to France he created a great number of works inspired by his memories and the artifacts that he brought back with him.[ii]  In 1829 he published a book of genre lithographs showing everyday life in Turkey; with themes like for example, The Old Shopkeeper or Turkish School Children.[iii]  He also created a great number of watercolors and oil paintings concerned with the same subjects, several based on some of the watercolor sketches that he had done earlier.  These paintings were enormously popular with the public and Decamps sold them with great ease for considerable sums of money.[iv]  Some of his oil paintings were exhibited at The Salon.  His Oriental images earned him wide respect and fame.  Though he dealt with a variety of themes throughout his life, he would periodically return to the Oriental genre pictures, even though he never undertook another trip to the East.

A Turkish Merchant, a watercolor executed around the 1830s, is one of many works by Decamps inspired by his travels to Turkey.  It was meant by him to represent the final state, and not just a sketch for a future painting.  It is one of many of such watercolors which Decamps, over years, sold to various dealers and art collectors.[v]  As far as the paint is concerned this is basically mixed media, since the artist used not only watercolor but also gouache (bodycolor) with added gum Arabic and with varnish.  The image is probably of a street market/bazaar with a standing male figure dominating the scene and with other figures not very distinct in the background, most of them with their backs towards the viewer.  The main figure stands in full length slightly turned to his right, but looks straight at the viewer.  His face is of a darkish tone with a very dark, thick beard and facial hair including heavy eyebrows.  He appears to be a large, imposing man dressed in what seems to be traditional garb—a large turban, long, layered robes, a red cape, a wide black belt to which there are attached a variety of sabers and other weapons.  If this man is supposed to be a merchant, are his wares the weapons that we see?  Does he deal in sabers and related accessories?  Who exactly are these people in the background, who seem to be dressed in a similar way to our central figure, are they other merchants or passers-by?  Their attention seems to be centered on some vaguely delineated figure that occupies a higher plane than they do.  This man with outstretched arms facing the crowd is probably another merchant displaying his goods.  However, because he seems to appear on a stage-like setting, there is something of a magician or an actor about him.   The painting has a very ‘painterly’ quality; one can see and sense the brush strokes and layers of paint in it.  The mixture of the watercolor, gouche and gum Arabic (‘watercolor cuisine’) allows the artist to create a certain thickness and opaqueness that a plain watercolor would not have.[vi]  Also, on the central figure the artist used a little varnish which creates a somewhat glossy effect.  The most striking feature here seems to be the contrast of the very dark and light colors.  The central figure--the merchant, which seems to be emanating light, seems also to be emerging from the darkness of the bazaar, giving the painting a certain aura of mystery.  The usage of the red color on the garments gives the image also a certain amount of warmth; and because this color is applied throughout, it helps the viewer’s eye move through various areas of the painting and discover new details. 

A Turkish Merchant is a pleasing, warmth-emanating image of subject that many Europeans, during the times of Decamps, probably found quite exotic.