A Study On The Oriental Elements In The Paintings Of France In The First Half Of The 19th Century

Orientalism theme in western art history usually refers to the European painting which takes North Africa and Middle East as the theme from the beginning of the 19 th century to the beginning of the 20 th century.However,this term has been expanded to wider range at the second half of the 19 th century and even in nowadays,which includes Southeast Asia and Far East,especially China and Japan.To return to the original oriental connotation and essence,this paper takes European art capital of France in the 19 th century as research object.It mainly studies the oriental elements and orientalism thought represented in painting works of two important schools in the first half of the 19 th century in France.This paper mainly analyzes the following four aspects from the perspective of art and with adoption of research methods of social history of art and iconography and other subjects.Firstly,it analyzes the historical background of French neoclassicism and romanticism,analyzes the establishment of oriental elements of Ingres and Delacroix in French art as well as the reasons for the generation of orientalism thought.At the moment,it has become oriental elements of fashion,which are not only presented in the paintings of these two representatives,but also presented in the paintings of other painters;Secondly,it takes the paintings of Ingre,who is the representative of French neoclassicism,as the center and constructs natural superiority of the west for the east by analyzing the theme of bedroom and bathroom nude as well as the theme of “sex”and racial discrimination;Thirdly,it takes of the paintings of Delacroix,who is the representative of French romanticism,as the center,analyzes the characterization of oriental elements in his painting from the perspective of theme reform and theme of tyranny and violence etc,and then it constructs imagination of the west for the east in romanticism painting into a wonder,a focus originated from themselves;Fourthly,it reviews the orientalism thought in French painting through above demonstrations and with reference to the research results American scholar Edward Said for orientalism andcultural hegemony.For the paintings with oriental theme,on one hand,this paper discusses its positive influence on paintings of France and even the whole Europe;on the other hand,it criticizes the colonization ideology presented in painting art.It regards the differences of oriental and western art objectively and reasonably and places oriental and western art in a reconstructed system equally to elaborate,which is better to make trans-contextual research on the real “world art”.