Courtyard

This courtyard scene by Decamps from around 1855 reflects the artist's interest in atmospheric architectural spaces that he developed during his travels in Turkey and the Middle East in 1828. Decamps was among the first French painters to visit the Ottoman Empire, and his exotic subjects created a sensation at the Paris Salon. Even in his later domestic scenes, the play of strong Mediterranean light on stone walls recalls his Orientalist work.

Decamps builds the composition through contrasts of light and shadow on architectural surfaces, using thick impasto for sunlit areas and thinner washes for shadows. The textured brushwork captures the materiality of stone and plaster with painterly economy.