Mosque in Algiers 1882

Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted this oil on canvas titled 'Mosque in Algiers' at an unknown date. Here, Renoir paints a snapshot of French colonial life, showing us the kind of casual encounter between cultures that would have been an everyday occurrence in French Algeria. The artist revels in the quality of North African light, bathing the mosque in a warm glow and creating an atmosphere of exotic sensuality. The clothing of the figures in the foreground is loosely rendered in the style of Orientalist painting. At this time, the French state was actively involved in the production of art. Many artists received commissions to travel to French colonies and document life there. Renoir seems to distance himself from this colonial project by focusing on aesthetic impressions rather than ethnographic details. To understand this painting better, it would be worth consulting travel accounts and other primary source materials to understand how French artists viewed the social and political conditions of colonialism.