Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas
In 1822, the German Romantic painter Johann Moritz Rugendas undertook his famed three-year journey across Brazil. Later, between 1831 and 1846, encouraged by Alexander von Humboldt and other Romantic artists, he would make a second trip through Mexico and South America. In 1832, Eugène Delacroix st...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
2022-11-01
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| Series: | Culture & History Digital Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://cultureandhistory.revistas.csic.es/index.php/cultureandhistory/article/view/246 |
| _version_ | 1797950958136721408 |
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| author | Miguel Ángel Gaete |
| author_facet | Miguel Ángel Gaete |
| author_sort | Miguel Ángel Gaete |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
In 1822, the German Romantic painter Johann Moritz Rugendas undertook his famed three-year journey across Brazil. Later, between 1831 and 1846, encouraged by Alexander von Humboldt and other Romantic artists, he would make a second trip through Mexico and South America. In 1832, Eugène Delacroix started a six-month journey to Spain and North Africa as a part of a diplomatic mission. Both artists profusely translated their travels into words and rich images of tropical America and the Orient. Their paintings and illustrations of remote lands and people became milestones in their respective careers while being prime examples of how Europe viewed and perceived the rest of the world in the nineteenth century. In hindsight, they were not only mere agents and promoters of two crucial aesthetic trends of that time: Orientalism and Tropicality but the embodiment of two ways of seeing and imagining the Others. This article places these two artists against each other, contrasting the set of ideas and cultural preconceptions resting behind a sizeable number of paintings, drawings, and illustrations of their Eastern and South American experiences. The central argument is that Tropicality and Orientalism were comparable phenomena based on similar tropes and assumptions. It brings forward recurring themes of Rugendas and Delacroix’s works, such as the eroticisation of female bodies and the linkage between South America and the East with everlasting ideas of violence, adventures, and savageness to prove such an equivalence.
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| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:23:19Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9a17070a63154750922ad5df58fab92b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2253-797X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T22:23:19Z |
| publishDate | 2022-11-01 |
| publisher | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Culture & History Digital Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-9a17070a63154750922ad5df58fab92b2023-01-17T13:57:01ZengConsejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasCulture & History Digital Journal2253-797X2022-11-0111210.3989/chdj.2022.022Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz RugendasMiguel Ángel Gaete0University of York In 1822, the German Romantic painter Johann Moritz Rugendas undertook his famed three-year journey across Brazil. Later, between 1831 and 1846, encouraged by Alexander von Humboldt and other Romantic artists, he would make a second trip through Mexico and South America. In 1832, Eugène Delacroix started a six-month journey to Spain and North Africa as a part of a diplomatic mission. Both artists profusely translated their travels into words and rich images of tropical America and the Orient. Their paintings and illustrations of remote lands and people became milestones in their respective careers while being prime examples of how Europe viewed and perceived the rest of the world in the nineteenth century. In hindsight, they were not only mere agents and promoters of two crucial aesthetic trends of that time: Orientalism and Tropicality but the embodiment of two ways of seeing and imagining the Others. This article places these two artists against each other, contrasting the set of ideas and cultural preconceptions resting behind a sizeable number of paintings, drawings, and illustrations of their Eastern and South American experiences. The central argument is that Tropicality and Orientalism were comparable phenomena based on similar tropes and assumptions. It brings forward recurring themes of Rugendas and Delacroix’s works, such as the eroticisation of female bodies and the linkage between South America and the East with everlasting ideas of violence, adventures, and savageness to prove such an equivalence. https://cultureandhistory.revistas.csic.es/index.php/cultureandhistory/article/view/246RomanticismDelacroixRugendasSouth AmericaOrientalismTropicality |
| spellingShingle | Miguel Ángel Gaete Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas Culture & History Digital Journal Romanticism Delacroix Rugendas South America Orientalism Tropicality |
| title | Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas |
| title_full | Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas |
| title_fullStr | Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas |
| title_full_unstemmed | Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas |
| title_short | Territorial Fantasies, Sexual Nuances, and Savage Energy: Orientalism and Tropicality in Eugène Delacroix and Johann Moritz Rugendas |
| title_sort | territorial fantasies sexual nuances and savage energy orientalism and tropicality in eugene delacroix and johann moritz rugendas |
| topic | Romanticism Delacroix Rugendas South America Orientalism Tropicality |
| url | https://cultureandhistory.revistas.csic.es/index.php/cultureandhistory/article/view/246 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT miguelangelgaete territorialfantasiessexualnuancesandsavageenergyorientalismandtropicalityineugenedelacroixandjohannmoritzrugendas |