Orientalist Painting of "Animated Alley in Algeria,"
Orientalist School, France
Circa 1910
Oil on canvas
Signed though indecipherable
10 1/4 x 8 1/4 (13 1/4 x 11 1/4 frame) inches

A lovely and cheery Orientalis School of France from the early part of the 20th century. The scene depicts women passing through an alleyway with trees and a bright and sunny Mediterranean sky.

The paint is thickly applied creating an intense impasto of bright and bold colors. The scene is very much in the style of the Orientalist School of the 19th to early 20th century which featured European and American travelers flocking to the mystical "East" or Orient. The scenes were typical of figures clothed in bright colors and exotic costumes. This part of the world fascinated and captivated Westerners with visions of the strange and alluring, allowing a kind of voyeuristic pleasure where morals were perceived to be different than in their much repressed homelands.