Where Is Women of Algiers? See It at Louvre, Paris

Q: Where can I see Women of Algiers?

It's at the Louvre in Paris. Eugène Delacroix painted it in 1834 after visiting a harem in Algiers during a diplomatic mission to North Africa in 1832. The visit lasted only a few hours but inspired one of his most celebrated works.

Q: What does the painting show?

Three Algerian women sit in richly decorated quarters with a Black servant. They smoke, recline on cushions, and exist in a private world. Delacroix made sketches during his brief visit and worked from memory and watercolors back in Paris. The scene blends observation with European fantasy about the 'Orient.'

Q: Why did Picasso paint variations of this?

Picasso created 15 paintings called 'Les Femmes d'Alger' between 1954 and 1955, reworking Delacroix's composition through a Cubist lens. Version 'O,' the final painting, sold at Christie's in 2015 for $179.4 million, a record at the time.

Q: How big is the painting?

It measures 180 cm × 229 cm (70.9 × 90.2 inches). The warm color palette and sensuous fabrics reflect Delacroix's fascination with North African light and color. The painting helped establish Orientalism as a genre in 19th-century French art.

Eugène Delacroix painted this Women of Algiers in Their Apartment in 1834, after returning from a diplomatic mission to North Africa. During a brief stop in Algeria, a merchant granted Delacroix rare access to his household's private harem. The artist made quick sketches that he later developed into this oil painting in Paris.

Four women recline in a lavishly decorated room, their clothing and jewelry rendered in rich detail. Unlike typical Orientalist paintings, Delacroix avoided objectifying titles like "odalisque." The Romantic work caused a sensation at the 1834 Paris Salon. King Louis Philippe purchased it immediately.

The painting influenced generations of artists. Van Gogh and Gauguin traveled to Montpellier in 1888 specifically to see Delacroix's second version from 1849. Picasso created his own Women of Algiers series in 1954-55, which sold for a record $175 million. The original hangs at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

It's at the Louvre in Paris. Eugène Delacroix painted it in 1834 after visiting a harem in Algiers during a diplomatic mission to North Africa in 1832. The visit lasted only a few hours but inspired one of his most celebrated works.

Three Algerian women sit in richly decorated quarters with a Black servant. They smoke, recline on cushions, and exist in a private world. Delacroix made sketches during his brief visit and worked from memory and watercolors back in Paris. The scene blends observation with European fantasy about the 'Orient.'

Picasso created 15 paintings called 'Les Femmes d'Alger' between 1954 and 1955, reworking Delacroix's composition through a Cubist lens. Version 'O,' the final painting, sold at Christie's in 2015 for $179.4 million, a record at the time.

It measures 180 cm × 229 cm (70.9 × 90.2 inches). The warm color palette and sensuous fabrics reflect Delacroix's fascination with North African light and color. The painting helped establish Orientalism as a genre in 19th-century French art.

Yes. Modern scholars critique both the painting and the Orientalist tradition it represents. The male European gaze on secluded women raises questions about power, colonialism, and representation. Delacroix idealized and exoticized a culture France was actively colonizing. These tensions are now part of how the work studied.

Women of Algiers

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Eugène Delacroix

The Italian Theatre

Two Views of an Indian from Calcutta, Seated and Standing

The Orphan Girl at the Cemetery

A Mulatto Woman

Also at Louvre, Paris

Artemis of Versailles

The Concert: Singer and Theorbo Player

The Combat of Mars and Minerva

Madonna and Sleeping Child with Three Angels

Related Romanticism Works

The Fighting Temeraire

The Hay Wain

The Clothed Maja

The Third of May 1808

The Nude Maja

The Dog

Saturn Devouring His Son

The Angelus

About Women of Algiers

Own Art Like This