Charmeuse De Serpents 1882

Theodoros Ralli painted ‘Charmeuse De Serpents’ sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The painting depicts an orientalist scene, typical for the period. In the painting, Ralli deploys several visual cues, such as the Turkish dress, North African setting, and haremlike aesthetic. The sum of these amount to a fantasy of colonialist eroticism. These cues were common within the academic art world of the time and are examples of westerners exoticizing people from other cultures. Theodoros Rallis spent much of his life in Paris, exhibiting at the Salon, and it's through the lens of the French art world that we can begin to understand this painting. Academic painters were often less concerned with cultural authenticity and more focused on the social and economic conditions of the Parisian art market. Historians can use exhibition records, biographies, and other primary sources to better understand how these images participated in the cultural discourse of the time.