What an enchanting image. What’s going on here? Some provenance: J. S. Sargent was 24 years old when he traveled to Africa. He finished this one in Paris from memories and sketches he’d made while in Morocco.
Sargent’s friend and fellow émigré, Henry James, said of it, “[She] stands on a rug, under a great white Moorish arch, and from out of the shadows of the large drapery, raised pentwise by her hands, which covers her head, looks down, with painted eyes and brows showing above a bandaged mouth, at the fumes of a beautiful censer or chafing-dish placed on the carpet. I know not who this stately Mohammedan may be, nor in what mysterious domestic or religious rite she may be engaged; but in her muffled contemplation and her pearl-colored robes, under her plastered arcade, which shines in the Eastern light, she is beautiful and memorable. The picture is exquisite, a radiant effect of white upon white, of similar but discriminated tones.”
It is generally believed that this is a stylized version of the actual rituals Sargent witnessed, a composite of impressions, “The Orient” as seen through western eyes—for Western tastes. “On June 9, 1880, a French critic referred to Sargent’s Smoke of Ambergris as, ‘quite simply, a perfect piece of painting.'”
The subject of Fumée d’Ambre Gris is a Moroccan woman performing a Moorish ceremony with the help of ambergris, a rare substance produced by sperm whales.
On location somewhere in North Africa—at some exquisite, out of the way nook that only the Ottomans could’ve built: the lighting is perfect; the costume is flawless; the rug placement over impeccable tile-work—this could very easily be a movie set, groups of people gathered ’round off camera, with lights and booms and grips, makeup artists, wardrobe adjusters ….
I can imagine few better-produced images. Structurally, it reveals “some knowledge”. There’s an alchemy of art going on here. Something has been distilled, Plato’s perfection of line, symmetry, and form? It all seems too much for just one painting. This exotic image of a woman standing over an incense-burner still has power 140 years later, as if the stars were aligned on this day through the magic of this ritual, that the burning of ambergris might have some effect other than some curious theatrics. I can imagine Sargent’s teacher, celebrated artist Carolus-Duran, upon seeing this piece: “I knew that boy was good but, damn ….” Today Sargent is widely recognized as the Grand Master of Edwardian Portraiture.
“Ambergris, a waxy excretion formed in the intestines of sperm whales (thanks to their inability to digest squid beaks), is one of the most sought-after substances in the world. Ambergris sells for roughly $20 a gram, gold for $30. It has been used as a cure for pestilence, and, according to 10th century Muslim trader Ibn Hawqal, as an aphrodisiac. In Moby Dick, Herman Melville claimed that ambergris, ‘an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale,’ was ‘largely used in perfumery, in pastiles, precious candles, hair powders, and pomatum.’
“More recently, it has appeared in overpriced delicacies, such as the $4,700 mince pie created last month for charity by U.K. food designer Andrew Stellitano, and even more overpriced perfumes. In 2005, a 200-year-old fragrance originally made for Marie Antoinette, which featured ambergris as a main ingredient, was reproduced in limited quantities for $11,000 a bottle.”
“Ambergris takes years to form. Christopher Kemp, the author of Floating Gold: A Natural (and Unnatural) History of Ambergris, says that it is only produced by sperm whales, and only by an estimated one percent of them. Ambergris is rare; once expelled by a whale, it often floats for years before making landfall. The very small chance of finding ambergris, and the legal ambiguity involved led perfume makers away from ambergris and led chemists on a quest to find viable alternatives.”
Ambergris contains white crystals of a terpene known as ambrein; some studies indicate possible health benefits. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?