""the Water Carrier", Framed Enamel Plaque, Circa 1895"
La Porteuse d’Eau (The Water Carrier),A late 19th or early 20thC French Art Nouveau enamelled copper plaque
Ornately Framed French Enamel Plaque 'La Porteuse d'Eau' -
Orientalist hand-painted polychromed enamel of a young female water carrier arriving at the water source carrying a large water jug on her covered head. She’s seen stepping down towards the pool, surrounded by classical ruins, and is about to fill her container with cool, fresh water.
Indistinctly signed to bottom right hand corner." A.Maysnier" ???
Together with its original and impressive ornate wooden frame also depicting ruins classi-cal architecture with ivy and palm trees growing through he columns.
With kick stand, can be hanged to the wall as well
Circa 1895
frame H 53.5 cm L 28.7 cm D 12 cm
One of the fascinations of the Orientalists was the Arab woman, called «oriental». Indeed, through the poems and wonderful stories of Arab authors such as One Thousand and One Nights, but also through the notebooks and travel stories of Europeans describing women of surreal beauty in harems, a fantasy for the Arab woman has gradually emerged in Occi-dent. This fantasy was, especially for European travelers, the result of a wonderful literary imagination finding its origin in a secret that surrounds the Arab woman at the time.
The ‘porteuse d’eau’ was a classic subject for early Art Nouveau artists
Orientalism is a literary and artistic movement born in Western Europe in the 18th century. By its scale and its vogue, throughout the 19th century, it marks the interest and curiosity of artists and writers for the countries of West and East. Orientalism is born in the fascination of the Ottoman Empire and follows its slow disintegration after the Greek war of independence of the 1820s and the progression of European colonizations. This exotic trend is associated with all the artistic currents of the 19th century, academic, romantic, realistic or even impressionist. She is present in architecture, music, painting, literature, poetry... Picturesque aesthetics, confusing styles, civilizations and eras, Orientalism has created clichéd and commonplace names that are still found today in literature or cinema.
Le Magazine de PROANTIC
TRÉSORS Magazine
Rivista Artiquariato