Coincidentia Oppositorum: The Layering of Contrasts in Paint

Both Delacroix’s painting and Baudelaire’s poem are distinctly foreign and are visions of the Orient and its women. For these artists the Orient is both a European dream and a historical reality, as evidenced by the form and content of their works. Baudelaire references the Opera Ball and old Kaffir women, and Delacroix titles his paint

The aspect of the contrast between the individual and their environment which deals with the individual and the exterior having been discussed previously, what remains to be addressed is the important relation of flesh and fabric, or body and accessories, in each of these works. Both Baudelaire and Delacroix describe visually the details of the women’s clothing, the intricacies of texture, weight, and color, but the emphasis in “Beautiful Dorothea” is on the subject’s body, her “slender torso,” “ample hips,” “long waist, curving back and pointed breasts,” and her “shining, splendid leg.” What is stressed in Women of Algiers in Their Apartment is the texture and volume of the clothing and not that of the female flesh - even though the women wear low cut blouses Delacroix refrains from suggesting the swell of breasts; their chests remain flat without the slightest hint of cleavage. In fact the only flesh that is exposed besides their faces is their limbs, depicted in an unfeminine manner, desexualizing them. While clothing in Baudelaire’s poem both clings to Dorothea and gives her shape – “her clinging dress of light pink silk vividly contrasts with the darkness of her skin, precisely molding her long waist, her curving back and pointed breasts” – Delacroix paints the women’s dresses as a mere suggestion of the luminosities of the female body; the fabric is at times partially transparent and is a flickering surface which serves as the vehicle through which flesh is imagined and materialized. Each artist uses clothing as a means of revealing and withholding the female body, both with the aim of disclosing discreetly the women’s social station as seen by the artist – one a prostitute and the other a group of solemnly dignified women.

The final layer of contrasting components to be discussed with regard to these two works is that of action and stasis. After setting the scene of “Beautiful Dorothea” as one of tranquility, where “the stupefied world collapses into a siesta,” Baudelaire embeds in the abundant description and adjectives an emphasis on movement. Dorothea “moves along the deserted street, the only living thing at this hour,” and even in recounting the appearance of her clothing Baudelaire uses verbs such as “swaying gently,” “molding,” “tugs,” and “chatter secrets.” The viewer escapes the stillness of the day by retreating into Dorothea’s thoughts where there is dancing and “old Kaffir women themselves get drunk and go wild with joy.” Delacroix also contrasts stasis with movement in his painting but in a more subtle manner – the standing servant not only serves to emphasize the contrast between interior and exterior and lightness and darkness, but her movement also calls attention to the women’s stillness and immobility. This layer of contrasts can be linked to the idea of freedom as well – Dorothea’s freedom is affirmed in Baudelaire’s inclusion of action in his poem while the Algerian women’s lack of freedom is affirmed in Delacroix’s subtle insistence on their immobility. In terms of formal movement, the conclusion of Baudelaire’s poem entails a shift of the des

Some topics in this essay:
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