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Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.

Turkish women and girls in a park

Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Contact us at copyright@samuseum.org for rights and reproduction of this image. Photography by Ansen Seale.

Turkish women and girls in a park

Artist: (French, 1807 - 1876)
Culture: French
Date: 1876
Place made:France
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions:
31 x 23 in. (78.7 x 58.4 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, Bequest of Gilbert M. Denman, Jr.
Object number: 2005.1.168
Signed: Signed lower left: N. Diaz 76
Provenance: with Howard Young Gallery, New York, by 1930; sold by M. R. Schweitzer, New York, to Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. (1921-2004), San Antonio, 1963; Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., by bequest to San Antonio Museum of Art, 2005
Label Text
Six young women and one dog relax in a forest setting. The bright blues, pinks, crimson, and gold notes of their costumes and accessories lead the eye through the pyramid of bodies. The painting’s title is ironic: if these women are gypsies—people of Romany descent who lived nomadic lifestyles in Western Europe—their social standing is far from royalty. In nineteenth-century France, collectors enjoyed scenes of Others: people of different ethnic, racial, and geographic communities depicted as exotic artistic contrasts to their own privileged lives. These artworks were not about the actual worlds of their subjects, but rather how artists and patrons imagined them.

Born in France to Spanish parents, Narcisse Díaz de la Peña trained as a porcelain painter. He became best known for landscapes inspired by the great forest of Fontainebleau, as well as fantasy scenes such as this painting.
(William Keyse Rudolph, 2018)
Not on view


The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.