Femme Kabyle d'Algerie and Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II (Guillemin)

Femme Kabyle d'Algerie and Janissaire du Sultan Mahmoud II or Kabyle woman from Algeria and Janissary of Sultan Mahmoud II is a sculpture in bronze made in 1884 by Émile-Coriolan Guillemin.
History.
They are representative of the orientalist movement of the second half of the XIX.
Creation.
"Kabyle Woman of Algeria" and "Janissary of Sultan Mahmoud II" are bronze busts with silver, gold and polychrome patina with hard colored stone cabochons, on Levant marble bases, forming a pair. The female figure is signed "Guillemin/1884", and the male figure is signed "Éle Guillemin".
Émile-Coriolan Guillemin specializes in works inspired by the Middle and Far East. His representations of Indian falconers (in collaboration with Alfred Barye), Turkish, Kurdish, Algerian or Japanese women established his reputation as an Orientalist sculptor of the mid 1870s. He exhibited for the last time at the Salon of 1899 and many of his works were purchased by the State.
The Janissary was a member of an elite military corps, originally made up of prisoners of war, who protected the Ottoman Empire and held a high social position until they were abolished by Sultan Mahmoud II (died 1839). Due to their popularity and political powers, they made an interesting subject for portraiture. The female bust, "Kabyle Woman from Algeria", was exhibited for the first time at the Salon of 1884 with great success. The current pair is an example of the finely detailed polychrome sculpture for which Guillemin was best known.
Exhibitions.
It was exhibited at the Salon in the Louvre in 1884.
Art market.
At a Sotheby's auction in New York in 2008, "Female Kabyle of Algeria and Jannisary of Sultan Mahmoud II" (1967), bronze, by Emile Guillemin was sold for 1,202,500 euros plus auction fees.
Styling.
Orientalism is a movement reflecting the fascination of the West for the exoticism of Eastern lands, which became popular during the second half of the 19th century. Romantic portrayals of African countries in contemporary literature and operas, such as "L'Africaine" and "Aida", have encouraged this exoticism. In the United States, the 1876 Turkish Bazaar at Philadelphia Century Exhibition further heightened the fascination with Turkish or Moorish themes that lasted well into the 1880s. Orientalist themes allowed artists to break free from the monochromy of neo-classicism. Using a range of gilded and silvered bronze, marble, onyx and colored stones, they enrich their work while maintaining a keen ethnographic interest in their models.