The Dance of the Almeh

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The Dance of the Almeh: Jean-Leon Gerome

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Jean-Leon Gerome Oil Painting - The Dance of the Almeh

Keywords: Dance, Almeh

Work Overview: The Dance of the Almeh
Jean-Leon Gerome
Date: 1863
Style: Orientalism
Genre: genre painting
Oil on wood panel
19 3/4 x 32 inches
Location: Dayton Art Institute (DAI), Dayton, OH, US

Almeh (Egyptian Arabic: عالمة‎ ʕálma IPA: [ˈʕælmæ], plural ʕawālim عوالم [ʕæˈwæːlem, -lɪm], from Arabic: علم ʻālima "to know, be learned") was the name of a class of courtesans or female entertainers in Arab Egypt, women educated to sing and recite classical poetry and to discourse wittily, connected to the qayna slave singers of pre-Islamic Arabia.[1] They were educated girls of good social standing, trained in dancing, singing and poetry, present at festivals and entertainments, and hired as mourners at funerals.

Gérôme’s convincing realism, as well as his choice of both historic and exotic subjects, made him one of the most famous and successful artists of mid-nineteenth century France. The title of this painting refers to the Arabic word analeim, meaning learned woman, which originally applied to professional female improvisers of songs and poems. By 1850, the term meant virtually any woman dancer, many of whom were also prostitutes. Their alluring dances, accompanied as shown here by musicians playing a clay drum, two-stringed cello, and double reed pipe, also figured in the work of esteemed French writers such as Gustave Flaubert. European travelers came to think of these dances as a required part of their experience of the Orient.

Gérôme showed the painting at the 1864 Salon, the official annual exhibition in Paris. Although Gérôme was by then securely established, Dance of the Almeh was highly controversial. Though apparently popular with the public and with some critics, the painting provoked others to complain about its overt appeal to sexual sensibilities, some claiming that it was too immoral to be publicly shown. The controversy seems to have had little effect on Gérôme’s career, as he attracted scores of European and American artists to study with him until the very end of his long career.

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Jean-Leon Gerome

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