In 1832, the great French artist Eugène Delacroix traveled to Morocco with a group of French diplomats. During his six-month stay in the country, he persistently sought to paint the locals, and particularly local women. But most of his Moroccan paintings—many of which are now on display at the Metropolitan Museum in New York—depict not local Muslims but local Jews. Jackson Arn writes:
Delacroix’s North African paintings are gentler and more intimate than his [earlier] paintings of fiery Arabs and snorting horses—for once, you sense that he’s approaching his subjects as a guest, not a spectator. This may have something to do with the Jewish friends Delacroix made during his time abroad, or with the Jews’ status in North Africa—there, as in Europe, they were regarded as refugees in a foreign land. At the same time, the images of Moroccan Jews can seem unique and surprising because Delacroix himself was surprised by them. . . .
In his sketches, Delacroix was forced to give the people of North Africa what earlier [artists] had refused them—an everyday life, unrelated to Europe’s fantasies. The same could be said for many of the paintings he completed after returning to Paris. [His] Jewish Wedding in Morocco (1841) feels like a long, easy sigh—notice how, by choosing not to paint the climactic union of bride and groom, he clears room for humble details like the children’s faces peeking over the balcony or the pile of shoes in the foreground. (And for all its artist’s rhapsodizing about the vibrant North African color palate, it’s remarkable how much of the canvas is taken up by the yellowish-gray wall). . . .
Delacroix attended many intimate Jewish gatherings during his time in Morocco, and mined them for striking images. This wasn’t only because Islamic tradition made his interactions with Arab women comparatively difficult (though it undeniably did); in Tangier, Delacroix had a friend on the inside, a Jewish guide and interpreter who knew the city well enough to escort him to the right places. His name was Abraham Benchimol, and it’s likely that on February 21, 1832, he invited Delacroix to attend the wedding of his daughter, Préciada—the same ceremony the artist would later immortalize in Jewish Wedding in Morocco.
Read more on Tablet: https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/visual-art-and-design/270543/eugene-delacroix-north-africa-jews