Charles Vacher de Tournemine (1812 - 1872)
Charles Vacher de Tournemine's Orientalist paintings are typical of the majority exhibited at the Paris Salons during the 1850s and 1860s; pleasant genre scenes in rich tones which pleased the public, but exasperated many critics. "Everybody off in his own little corner has set about 'doing' the Eastern world and its colours," de Lagenvais wrote. Certainly, many of these "neo-colourists," as they were dubbed, painted scenes of the Middle East without ever having set foot there. Vacher de Tournemine, however, was a great traveller. Service in the navy between 1825 and 1831 brought him in contact with countries around the Mediterranean. He took part in the battle of Navarino and the seizing of Algiers. He then visited the Balearic Isles, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt. After nine years' further service, this time in the army, he left to study painting in Paris in Isabey's studio. In 1846, Vacher de Tournemine began to exhibit at the Salon, showing scenes brought back from a long stay in Brittany, but after 1852, his paintings were almost exclusively Orientalist. Many of these were variations on his favourite theme: peaceful villages or small houses on the water's edge, the azure sky and white and ochre walls set off by the red and turquoise clothes of the small figures. Of these, the best known is his Habitations turques pres d'Adalia, Asie Mineure (Turkish Dwellings near Adalia, Asia Minor), now in the Louvre museum.
Other journeys followed, Algeria and Tunisia in 1853, the Danube and the Balkans in 1860 and, in 1863, Asia Minor, where he explored areas both dangerous and little-visited.
During his stay in Adramitti, he witnessed a procession such as the one illustrated here. "Imagine a Turkish wedding procession," he wrote in a letter dated July 1863. "A group of zeibecks lead the way, bearing red and yellow poles from which flutter the bride's shawls and scarves. They are followed by three individuals beating on big drums, accompanied by flute music sharp enough to pierce your ears and make you take to your heels. Next comes the bridegroom with all his friends. From time to time the procession comes to a halt, and one of its members carries a small sugarloaf into a house: this constitutes an invitation to the wedding feast. Then the burlesque dancing resumes with renewed frenzy." His last trip was to Egypt in 1869, for the opening of the Suez Canal. Although he exhibited pictures of India from 1868, temples, hunting scenes, festivals, these were painted from imagination; he never actually went there.
The founder of a well-known revue, Les Artistes Contemporains, which disseminated French art in Europe, Vacher de Tournemine was attached during the Commune to the Musée du Luxembourg, which housed paintings by living artists. Here, he had the responsibility of saving the collections from harm. He was later named assistant curator. He had for some time been on the administrative lists, and five of his paintings in nine years were bought by the State at fairly high prices. Several were sent to provincial museums, Montpellier, Toulon and Marseilles. It seems that Vacher de Tournemine was popular with foreign collectors, for, according to the catalogue of the posthumous studio sale in 1873, his paintings were already rare and few were to be found in France.
There has always been a certain amount of confusion in biographical notes about his name. Although the artist signed his work Ch. de Tournemine, he was in fact the natural son of Bernard Vacher de Tournemine, although declared at birth as de Tournemire.
Literature: Dr. L. Turret "Étude sur C. de Tournemine, peintre toulonnais," Bulletin de la Société Académique du Var, Toulon, 1877; J.C. Lesage, Charles Vacher de Tournemine (thesis in preparation), Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie, Paris-Sorbonne.
Studio sale: 2-4 February 1873, Drouot, Paris.