Patrick Vauday's 'La décolonisation du tableau' Examines Political Dimensions of 19th-Century Painting

In 'La décolonisation du tableau' (Éditions du Seuil), philosopher Patrick Vauday argues that 19th-century painting anticipated a decolonized gaze. Through analyses of Delacroix, Gauguin, and Monet, he contends that pictorial representation carries political meaning beyond aesthetics. Delacroix's 'Femmes d'Alger dans leur appartement' exploits the Orientalist cliché but reveals women as unforgettable subjects in an intimate space, challenging both male and colonial gazes. Gauguin opposed European representational monopoly by incorporating decorative figures and abandoning perspective, opening Western art to excluded sensibilities. For Monet, whose engagement with Japan (never colonized) is examined, decolonization meant liberating the gaze from any fixed viewpoint. Vauday's hypothesis: painting can resist hierarchical political orders that rank territories, peoples, and cultures.