Smart Secrets of Great Paintings
Season 1, Episode 9: Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834) by Eugène Delacroix
Select Source
As the war of colonization raged in Algeria, Eugene Delacroix was the first French artist to cross the Mediterranean. The naturalism of "Women of Algiers in Their Apartment," painted in 1834, takes us into the calm and simplicity of a harem as Delacroix saw it with his own eyes. This documentary looks at his attempts to counter Orientalist fantasies of Middle Eastern women held by European society and discusses his admiration of Lord Byron. It also details his journey through Morocco and Algeria as part of a French diplomatic mission, during which he witnessed the realities of North African culture that inspired him to document and recreate the scene of three sisters in their private quarters.
All Episodes - Season 1
Episode 1
The Moneylender and his Wife (1514) by Quentin Massys
Episode 2
The Artist's Studio (1855) by Gustave Courbet
Episode 3
Bathers at Asniers (1884) by Georges Seurat
Episode 4
Las Meninas (1665) by Diego Velazquez
Episode 5
The Wedding at Cana (1563) by Paolo Veronese
Episode 6
The Martyrdom of Saint Appolonia (1461) by Jean Fouquet
Episode 7
A Lady in Her Bath (1571) by Francois Clouet
Episode 8
Marie-Antoinette de Lorraine-Habsbourg, Queen of France and Her Children (1787) by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Episode 9
Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1834) by Eugène Delacroix
Episode 10
Colorful Life (1907) by Wassily Kandinsky
Episode 11
Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? 1897, Paul Gauguin
Episode 12
Temptations of St. Anthony, 1501, Hieronymus Bosch
Episode 13
Western Port in Frankfurt am Main, 1916, Ludwig Kirchner
Episode 14
Lady and the Unicorn, Circa 1500, Anonymous
Episode 15
The Primavera, 1482, Sandro Botticelli
Episode 16
The Astronomer (1668) by Johannes Vermeer
Episode 17
The Night Watch (1642) by Rembrandt Van Rijn
Episode 18
The Second of May 1808 (1814) by Francisco Goya
Episode 19
Women on a Café Terrace in the Evening (1877) by Edgar Degas
Episode 20
View of Warsaw From the Terrace of the Royal Palace (1773) by Bernardo Bellotto
Episode 21
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, 1876, Renoir
Episode 22
Pulcinella and Acrobats, 1797, Tiepolo
Episode 23
The Slave Ship, 1840, J.M. Turner
Episode 24
Men of the Docks, 1912, Bellows