Gustave Guillaumet, 'Mountains in North Africa, with a Bedouin Camp', about 1862-87

Gustave Guillaumet travelled extensively in Algeria and Morocco. He made 10 trips in 15 years. We do not know when he painted this oil sketch, and the site has also not been identified.

In 1861 Guillaumet entered the Prix de Rome. This competition offered a scholarship to study in Rome. He was not successful. Yet he decided to set out for Rome himself. Guillaumet’s family were wealthy. He was financially independent throughout his life. However, bad weather in Marseille made him change his mind. He sailed instead for Algeria.

Guillaumet worked within a genre called Orientalism. This was Western art that depicted the Middle East and North Africa. Many Orientalist works presented stereotyped or fantasised views of Islamic cultures. They often showed violent or sexualised scenes designed to shock or titillate European audiences. These images reflected colonial attitudes and power structures of the time. However, Guillaumet’s approach was different. His deep first-hand knowledge of Algeria and Morocco set him apart. Many Western artists who painted North African subjects had done little or no travel in the region.

Guillaumet went to the desert region in southern Algeria many times. He painted the hard lives of the nomadic peoples that lived in this tough environment. Many Europeans felt that industrialisation and commercialism were badly changing people’s way of life. Guillaumet’s oil paintings let people imagine a life free from employment, commerce or social conventions. Although derived from personal experience, Guillaumet’s paintings still played upon Western ideas of the Romantic. They also reflected colonial and racial hierarchies. His works were well received and were often shown at the Paris Salon.

Guillaumet travelled in difficult and harsh conditions. Producing finished oil paintings would have been impossible. Therefore, oil and pencil sketches, made on the spot, were an essential part of his practice. He used the sketches in his Paris studio as references for his finished oil paintings. This work is stamped ‘Atelier Guillaumet’, showing that it came from his studio.

In this sketch, white-robed figures move across the foreground. To the right, their tents are visible, as well as the smoke from a fire. The shadows from the rugged hills stretch across the valley floor. Perhaps the sun is rising. Guillaumet caught this scene with broad, rapid brushstrokes and thick impasto. He was no doubt working at speed before the light changed completely. While this sketch does not connect directly to any of his finished works, there are similarities to his Evening Prayer in the Sahara (Musée d’Orsay, Paris).