The Women of Algiers

Three Algerian women recline and sit among cushions, draperies, and brass in a closed, sun-washed chamber, while a maid kneels at one side and the women smoke the kalian, a long-hosed water pipe resting on the floor among them. Eugène Delacroix painted Les Femmes d’Alger dans leur appartement in 1834, shortly after his first stay in North Africa, and its quiet play of golden light, deep shadow, and saturated colour came to define French Orientalism. Grave and contemplative rather than animated, the canvas won wide praise at the 1834 Salon and has hung in the Louvre, Paris, ever since.