Oil painting, 'The Sentinel', Guillaume Régamey, 1870

A soldier in blue overcoat and hood is leaning against a tree in the foreground, and facing to the spectator's right. His rifle, with bayonet fixed, rests against his right shoulder. Trees and flat lansdcape, perhaps the see in the background.

Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

Perhaps the work exhibited in 1869 at the R.A. under the title 'Sur le terrain conquis: sentinelle de tirailleurs Algériens' (n. 333). Purchased by Constantine Alexander Ionides for £60 (his inventory, private collection), probably directly from the artist (as for CAI 71 and 73, bought around 1873). Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides, 1900

Historical significance: This painting is a fine example of Régamey’s art and shows an Algerian sentinel leaning against a tree in a sunny landscape. The golden sunlight and earthern palette is typical of the Orientalist which combines some Romantic elements (the lone figure presented as a pensieroso) with a Naturalist approach. The figure represents a ‘spahi’, a French Colonial soldier from North Africa, primarily recruited from the indigenous populations of Algeria.
Although it does not seem to have been in Africa, Régamey did many sketches and compositions of Arabs horsemen, probably after other artists’ designs. His visual memory was said to be considerable and enabled him to recreate details and compositional formulas in his atelier.
This painting was probably commissioned by Constantine Alexander Ionides, whom Régamey had probably met through the intermediary of Legros during the winter 1870-71 in London. At that time, Régamey was sharing Legros’ studio in London and collaborating to the Illustrated London News. It was perhaps the work exhibited in 1869 at the Royal Academy, London, under the title Sur le terrain conquis: sentinelle de tirailleurs Algériens (n. 333).

19th-century French art is marked by a succession of movements based on a more or less close relationship with nature. At the beginning of the century, Romantic artists were fascinated by nature they interpreted as a mirror of the mind. They investigated human nature and personality, the folk culture, the national and ethnic origins, the medieval era, the exotic, the remote, the mysterious and the occult. This movement was heralded in France by such painter as Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). In its opposition to academic art and its demand for a modern style Realism continued the aims of the Romantics. They assumed that reality could be perceived without distortion or idealization, and sought after a mean to combine the perception of the individual with objectivity. This reaction in French painting against the Grand Manner is well represented by Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) who wrote a 'Manifesto of Realism', entitled Le Réalisme published in Paris in 1855. These ideas were challenged by the group of the Barbizon painters, who formed a recognizable school from the early 1830s to the 1870s and developed a free, broad and rough technique. They were mainly concerned by landscape painting and the rendering of light. The works of Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Peña (1807-1876), Jules Dupré (1811-1889), Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867), Constant Troyon (1810-1865) and Jean-François Millet (1814-1875) anticipate somehow the plein-air landscapes of the Impressionists.

Guillaume Regamey (1837-1875) was born in Paris where he became the pupil of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802-1897) together with his two brothers Félix (1844-1907) and Frédéric (1849-1925). He participated to the first 'Salon des Refusés', which took place in François Bonvin's (1817-1887) atelier in 1859, where he befriended Corot. He had a short career and died at the early age of 37. A retrospective exhibition of his oeuvre took place at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1876.

This is a fine example of Guillaume Régamey art he devoted almost entirely to the depiction of horses and horsemen. This painting shows an Algerian sentinel leaning against a tree in a sunny landscape. The bright albeit golden light and the earthen palette are typical of the Orientalist movement, a branch of Realism which favoured subjects inspired by distant settings of the Middle East.

CAI.72