Our work is a biscuit from the famous Sèvres factory, reproducing a sculpture by the artist Emile-Coriolan Guillemin (1841-1907). The latter depicts a gypsy woman, also called Zingara, recognizable by her baggy clothing, probably saroual pants, captured in full movement, head slightly bent and left arm raised, ready to ring the castanets or small cymbals that she delicately clasps.
This proof, often presented in bronze accompanied by the male character of Janissary, focuses here on this orientalizing figure of the young woman, sometimes called Sita. In addition to the particularly advanced aestheticism thanks to the precise details of her wardrobe, it is here the movement that grabs the viewer at first glance. Indeed, our character, absorbed by her own gesture, literally exceeds the circular base with her left foot. The latter, ready to touch the ground, testifies to the powerful dynamism of the object.
Observation and realism are the key words of Guillemin's practice, who very quickly specialized in this orientalizing movement, notably during his exhibitions at the Salon between 1870 and 1890. Unlike other renowned artists, his life was marked by several trips to North Africa which contributed to enriching his eye and nourishing this aesthetic in vogue since the beginning of the XIXth century, thanks in particular to the Egyptian campaign, but which continued throughout the period with the founding in 1893 of the Society of French Orientalist Painters. This dreamed elsewhere fascinates and transports everyone to a country as distant as it is fantasized, which is reminiscent of Victor Hugo's Esmeralda described in his novel Notre Dame de Paris in 1831.
Dimensions:
height: 40cm
base diameter: 11 cm