La gitana 1935

Camille Bombois created this painting of La gitana, or The Gypsy, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Bombois was a French painter and one of the major figures of the Naive art movement. In France, the term ‘gitane’ is used to refer to a woman of Romani descent. The Romani people have faced discrimination in Europe for centuries. They are often stereotyped in popular culture. It is important to remember that representations like this are tied to social and political realities. They do not exist in a vacuum. To better understand the image, we can research popular representations of Romani people in France at the time this painting was made, as well as institutional policies such as immigration laws that impacted them. We can also look at the artist’s other works and any statements he made about them to better understand his intentions. Remember: the meaning of art is always contingent on social and institutional context.