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Lot Essay
Emile Guillemin (d.1907) made his debut at the Salon in 1870, later winning an Honorable Mention for sculpture in 1897. Although his oeuvre included a wide range of subjects, he specialised in exotic racial types and is renowned as a proponent of the Orientalist movement. The present models are examples of the finely detailed polychrome Orientalist sculptures for which Guillemin is best known. A controversial genre when revived in the 1850s by Charles-Henri-Joseph Cordier (see lot 363) and John Gibson, polychromy became increasingly fashionable in the 1860s, eventually meriting it's own class at the Salons and International Expositions.
The vogue for Orientalist taste in America was introduced at the Turkish bazaar at the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition, and continued unabated through the end of the century. The appearance of this model of the Janissaire and others including Salmson's Arabe Porteuse d'Eau in an 1887 photograph of the interior of Tiffany's Union Square store, indicates that this genre found a ready market in tastefully furnished homes of Victorian America (Loring, John, Tiffany's 150 Years, New York, 1987, p. 23).
The plaster for the present model of the Janissare was first exhibited at the Salon of 1887 (No. 4058). An unusual and romantic subject, the Janissaire was a member of an elite corps in the service of the Ottoman Empire. Originally composed of war captives pressed into service, they eventually gained great power, before being abolished under Sultan Mahmud II (d.1839). A related bust-length portrait of a Janissaire, also retailed by Tiffany, sold in these rooms 24 April 2002, lot 393.
The vogue for Orientalist taste in America was introduced at the Turkish bazaar at the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition, and continued unabated through the end of the century. The appearance of this model of the Janissaire and others including Salmson's Arabe Porteuse d'Eau in an 1887 photograph of the interior of Tiffany's Union Square store, indicates that this genre found a ready market in tastefully furnished homes of Victorian America (Loring, John, Tiffany's 150 Years, New York, 1987, p. 23).
The plaster for the present model of the Janissare was first exhibited at the Salon of 1887 (No. 4058). An unusual and romantic subject, the Janissaire was a member of an elite corps in the service of the Ottoman Empire. Originally composed of war captives pressed into service, they eventually gained great power, before being abolished under Sultan Mahmud II (d.1839). A related bust-length portrait of a Janissaire, also retailed by Tiffany, sold in these rooms 24 April 2002, lot 393.