Journey of Thought: “Out of Joseph Vernet’s Head”

Turn away from the painting and imagine the following:
The picture shows three people after The Greek Woman’s Bath.
What do you see?
Consider who the three people are. What is their relationship?
How are they positioned in the painting?
The title refers to a Greek woman. Why is only one of the women mentioned?
Why don’t they have names? Why is their origin emphasized?
What might their names be?
What might their everyday lives look like?
Where are the three women? In Greece?
What does it look like there? Have you ever been to Greece?
Is it warm or cold? Are these associations reflected in the image you imagine?
If you could talk to the Greek woman, what would she say?
What do the people look like?
What kind of clothing are the women wearing? Does it differ among them?
Which parts of their bodies are visible?
Do the people have to be beautiful, aesthetic, pleasing?
Are they indoors or outside?
Do you feel comfortable observing the women in such an intimate moment?
Now, turn back to the painting.
In the image, three people are shown after The Greek Woman’s Bath.
Who do you see?

The painting reflects the artist’s view of women and of Greece.
Whether Joseph Vernet ever visited the place himself is unknown. He draws on what is presumed to be Greek culture. The painting conveys an exoticized and sexualized idea of a nameless Greek woman and her attendants.
This “journey of thought” is meant to encourage viewers to question their own perceptions, prejudices, and ideas of representation—and to reflect on where these originate. It aims to highlight power structures that (even today) continue to shape how people, countries, and cultures are depicted.

The re*vision was written by the student group in the seminar “Intersectional Cultural Work” (taught by Nur Bakkar, Winter Semester 2024/25) – in cooperation between the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe (supervised by Isabel Dotzauer) and the Master’s program in Cultural Mediation at the University of Education Karlsruhe

Translated with Chat GPT.