Madame Clémentine Valensi Stora (L'Algérienne)
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''Madame Clémentine Valensi Stora (L'Algérienne)'' is an
oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
by
Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
, completed in 1870. It depicts a young Jewish woman, Rebecca Clémentine Stora, in Algerian costume and is untypical of Renoir's work, leading to debate about the place of the painting within his ''oeuvre''. Renoir and Stora both later repudiated the work.


Background

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was closely associated with the
Impressionist Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
movement and the painting of modern life in France in the mid-nineteenth century. ''L'Algérienne'' is untypical of his output in depicting a named living subject in an oriental costume. Renoir did create a number of Orientalist works including ''Woman of Algiers ("Odalisque")'' (1870) and ''
Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem) ''Parisian Women in Algerian Costume (The Harem)'', sometimes known as ''Interior of a Harem in Montmartre (Parisian Women Dressed in Algerian costumes)'', is a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, completed 1872, which Renoir created in homage to ...
'' (1872), however, both were homages to existing works rather than portraits of living people,
Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( , ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...
' '' Grande Odalisque'' (1814, Louvre) in the first case and Delacroix's ''
Women of Algiers in their Apartment ''Women of Algiers in their Apartment'' () is the title of two oil on canvas paintings by the French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix. Delacroix's first version of ''Women of Algiers'' was painted in Paris in 1834 and is located in the Lou ...
'' (1834, Louvre) in the second. Renoir did not travel abroad until 1881 when he visited Algeria.


Style

''L'Algérienne'' has been described by Colin Bailey as "proto-Impressionist". The broad brush strokes and exuberant use of colour represent a high point in Renoir's temporary rejection of the realism of
Gustave Courbet Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
and
Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...
in favour of the influence of his hero Delacroix.Bailey, Colin B. (1997) ''Renoir's Portraits: Impressions of an Age''. New Haven: Yale University Press, p. 108. Later, when his style had changed considerably, Renoir repudiated the work, complaining in connection with it, "la manie des amateurs de toujours demander ma manière ancienne".


Subject

The painting depicts a young
Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian Hebrew, Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), ...
Jewish woman, Rebecca Clémentine Stora, née Valensi (or Valensin), in Algerian costume. Clémentine Valensi was born in
Algiers Algiers ( ; ar, الجزائر, al-Jazāʾir; ber, Dzayer, script=Latn; french: Alger, ) is the capital and largest city of Algeria. The city's population at the 2008 Census was 2,988,145Census 14 April 2008: Office National des Statistiques ...
on 24 April 1851 and died in July 1917. She was the daughter of a maker of travel goods. The Stora and Valensi families moved to Paris in the late 1860s when there was growing anti-Semitic feeling in their native Algeria. Clémentine married Nathan Stora in Paris in 1868. He was an antiques dealer who specialised in goods from North Africa and had a shop at 24
Boulevard des Italiens The boulevard des Italiens is a boulevard in Paris. It is one of the 'Grands Boulevards' in Paris, a chain of boulevards built through the former course of the Wall of Charles V and the Louis XIII Wall, which were destroyed by the orders of Louis ...
named Au Pacha which later moved to the fashionable boulevard Hausmann. The tourist trade with
French Algeria French Algeria (french: Alger to 1839, then afterwards; unofficially , ar, الجزائر المستعمرة), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of French colonisation of Algeria. French rule in the region began in 1830 with the ...
created a strong market for Algerian and North African themed material in France and the business claimed to be suppliers to the Government General of Algeria. Benjamin, Roger. (2003) ''Renoir and Algeria''. New Haven:
Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...
, pp. 23–29.
Research using contemporary photographs has shown that the costume worn by Clémentine in the picture is authentic for a Jewish Algerian woman of her era. Comparisons have also been made with
Charles Cordier Charles Henri Joseph Cordier (19 October 1827 - 30 May 1905) was a French sculptor of ethnographic subjects. He is known for his polychrome sculptures in the later realist phase of Orientalism. Early life and education Cordier was born in Cam ...
's bust ''The Jewish Woman of Algiers'', which was shown at the Salon of 1863 and the Exposition Universelle of 1867, and which depicts a woman in a similar costume. The costume was not, however, conventional for 1870s Paris and it is unclear whether the choice of an Algerian theme was an attempt at ethnic authenticity by Renoir or a demand of the Storas. Clémentine's pursed expression seems to indicate that she is not entirely happy with something. If it was the costume, that did not stop her depiction in similar form in 1877 by Brochart. The authenticity of the clothes and the fact that the painting is a portrait of a named living person rules out the idea that the picture is a work of oriental fantasy and places it more in the realm of conventional
portraiture A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
, however, questions remain about what Renoir and the Storas were trying to achieve in the work. Clémentine was depicted twice more in art, in an oil painting by Constant-Joseph Brochart from about 1877 and in a
pastel drawing A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those use ...
, also by Brochart, from around 1880. In the first she is shown with her daughter Semha Lucie Stora, the third of Clémentine's four children, in an oriental fantasy scene on a terrace overlooking an imaginary city. Her husband's specialism in oriental carpets is referenced by the carpet in the picture. That painting was sold by
Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
in 2007. Constant Joseph Brochart (French, 1816-1899) Clementine Stora and her Daughter Lucie in an Interior, Constantinople.
Christie's. Retrieved 15 December 2014.
In the second depiction, Clémentine is shown in conventional European dress for a woman of her class with no evidence of her Jewish Algerian roots. Unlike ''L'Algérienne'', both of the Brochart portraits remained in the Stora family until after 2000. File:Clémentine Stora and her Daughter Lucie, Constant-Joseph Brochart.jpg, Constant-Joseph Brochart, ''Clémentine Stora and her Daughter Lucie'', c. 1877. Oil on canvas. Location unknown. File:Clémentine Stora, Constant-Joseph Brochart.jpg, Constant-Joseph Brochart, ''Clémentine Stora'', c. 1880. Pastel. Private collection, New York.


Provenance

Clémentine Stora disliked the painting, describing it as "horrible".Bailey, 1997, p. 32. Around 1893, she sold it to portraitist Paul Helleu for the modest sum of 300 francs despite the high prices then being realised for Renoir's work. Helleu in turn sold it to
Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
sometime before 1906. It was shown at the Orientalistes Francais exhibition in Paris in 1906 by Monet. It was inherited by Michael Monet in 1926 and was at the Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, by 1938 followed by Reid and Lefevre and William Hallsborough Ltd., London, by 1952. The last private owner was Prentice Cobb Hale of San Francisco.Bailey, 1997, pp. 273–274. Today, the painting is part of the collection of the
Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the Fin ...
, the gift of Mr and Mrs Prentice Cobb Hale in honour of Thomas Carr Howe Jr., 1966.''Madame Clementine Valensi Stora (L'Algerienne).''
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Retrieved 15 December 2014.


See also

*
List of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir This is an incomplete list of paintings by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir painted about 4000 paintings that have sold at auction for as much as $78.1 million (in 1990). The largest collection of Renoir paintings is at the Barn ...


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Madame Clementine Valensi Stora (L'Algerienne) Portraits by Pierre-Auguste Renoir Portraits of women 1870 paintings 19th-century portraits Paintings in the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco