Italian Woman (Jewish Algerian Woman) 1870

Camille Corot painted this oil on canvas, titled ‘Italian Woman (Jewish Algerian Woman)’, at an unknown date. This painting encapsulates a nineteenth-century European fascination with North Africa, and the communities living there. France had begun its colonial occupation of Algeria in 1830. Corot never visited Algiers, but he was likely influenced by the work of his peers such as Eugene Delacroix who did visit the region and painted scenes of the culture there. Corot here depicts a woman, a vibrant red dress contrasting against the darker background. The title tells us that the sitter is both Italian and Jewish Algerian. She is romanticized, exoticized, and generalized all at once. To understand Corot’s intentions, we might look at how the French colonial project was shaping the Western imagination at this time. We can ask what role paintings like this played in constructing the public understanding of foreign cultures.