A painting entitled “Woman from Algiers”
A painting by the American painter Frederick Arthur Bredeman entitled “A Woman from Algiers”, looking out from the balcony of one of the ancient houses of the Kasbah, with a blue background the color of the sea, with a rose in her hand and behind her the laurier-rose flowers that were taken.
In this study, we addressed the problem of identifying the image of Algerian women in the paintings of the American Orientalist painter Frederick Arthur Bridgman. Purposeful sampling was relied upon in selecting the paintings, beginning with the painting of Aisha, A Woman from the Kabylie Mountains, The Siesta, A Young Girl in Tlemcen, On the Roof, Card Players, The Silence of the Night, Algeria Afternoon, and Two Young Girls by employing semiotic analysis adopting Laurent Gervero’s approach. The study aims To highlight the image of the Algerian woman through Bridgman’s paintings: how she behaves, how she lives, what is the nature of her beliefs, and what are the most prominent features that characterize her personality. The Algerian woman is one of the most important pillars of Algerian society, as she received great attention from Bridgman and occupied a large part of his artistic production.
Algeria has attracted Frederick Arthur Bridgman since his first trip to North Africa in 1872 AD. Bridgman was interested in observing and exploring the daily life of the inhabitants. He described Algerian women, the landscape, and the architecture in paintings that radiate with warm colors and depict reflections of light. The sun’s rays warm the floor or tiles in the inner courtyard. And the deep shadows of the trees. Bridgman was able to mix reality and imagination, as well as between light and colors in its general atmosphere. Bridgman’s paintings helped in portraying Algerian women, renewing the visual image, and enriching the artistic movement. Thus, Bridgman’s paintings played an important role in giving the Western world an artistic image. Unlike his Eastern counterpart, Bridgman is considered one of the best American Orientalist painters.
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