The Booty

The Booty is a painting created by Greek painter Theodorus Rallis. He was a watercolourist and draughtsman creating portraits, local figures, architectural subjects, interiors, and genre works.  Rallis was best known for his orientalist paintings. Theodorus was trained in France by Jean-Léon Gérôme and Jean-Jules-Antoine Lecomte du Nouy. Both of the painters were Orientalists.  Jean-Léon was a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts and also an academist.  Theodorus acquired knowledge of both academic art and orientalism from his professors. He first exhibited his work at the Paris Salon in 1875 and was a member of the Société des Artistes Français. Rallis also frequently exhibited works at the Royal Academy in London from 1879 onwards. There is no exact inventory of the painters' existing catalog, but Artnet has tracked over 217 paintings and 15 works on paper attributed to Rallis. In 1900, Rallis was awarded the decoration of the Knight of the Legion of Honor by France.^[1][2][3][4]

The Booty
French: Le Butin, Greek: Η Λεία
The Booty
Artist	Théodore Ralli
Year	c. 1905
Medium	Oil on canvas
Movement	French School Orientalism
Subject	Tied up woman and other plunder
Dimensions	133 cm × 100 cm (52.3 in × 39.3 in)
Location	National Gallery of Athens, Athens, Greece
Owner	Ε. Koutlidis Foundation
Accession	Κ.712
Website	Museum website

Common artistic themes of Ottoman Oppression towards Greeks and other inhabitants of the empire recurred throughout the 19th century. In 1824, The Massacre at Chios was completed by French painter Eugène Delacroix, and it features the horrors the Greek people endured during the 1822 Chios massacre. Although Rallis was born in Constantinople, his family was originally from Chios. Another French painter named Constance Blanchard, painted Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death in 1838, featuring Greek women and children jumping to their deaths to avoid capture, enslavement, rape, and lifelong torture.^[5]

The Slave Market by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1866), an earlier work finished by one of Ralli's teachers.

Hiram Powers completed The Greek Slave statue in 1843, which was a part of the Greek Slave Movement in the United States. Powers was also exposed to the slave trade while traveling to Europe and visiting Ottoman territories. The sculptor eventually settled in Florence, Italy, where the work was completed. Powerful visual tools expressing harsh Greek oppression continued to flourish towards the second half of the 19th century. Rallis teacher Jean-Léon Gérôme painted The Slave Market in 1866. Greece was constantly at war with the Ottoman Empire, and in 1878 The Epirus Revolt erupted. Seven years later, Rallis traveled through the Ottoman Empire to visit Mount Athos in 1885, where he was motivated to complete many works.^[6] Two works he completed that same year feature similar-aged religious frescoes entitled The Captive and Refectory in Mount Athos. Around 1905, Rallis completed The Booty which is part of the collection of the Ε. Koutlidis Foundation and is on display at the National Gallery of Athens. Otto Pilny completed a similar work in 1910 entitled Slave Market.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Description

The Incense by Theodorus Rallis (1907) similar to The Booty

The work of art was completed around 1905 and is made with oil paint on canvas. The height of the work is 133 cm (52.3 in) and the width: 100 cm (39.3 in). The character and garments of The Booty resemble a work completed by Rallis entitled The Incense in 1907, possibly a precursor to the event. Rallis traveled around the Ottoman Empire, witnessing the slave trade firsthand. In 1885, he completed The Captive which features a similar theme to the current work. The scene is dramatic, and the half-naked woman is a reminder of the treatment of Greek women during the Ottoman Empire. It is a visual representation of what females endured as outlined in Joseph Stephanini's book The Personal Narrative of the Sufferings of J. Stephanini . The scene is set in front of the sanctuary gate in the interior of an Orthodox church. The church is being vandalized and robbed by Turks, and the woman has been ravished. Valuable silver and gold are scattered on the floor of the church next to the bandit's weapons. The woman has a view of fear and anger as if her captors are watching her and ready to continue their activity. The work greatly differs from The Captive where we see the vandals planning their activity. The work follows the French academic style and was influenced by photography. Brown tones dominate the work, while red is the only bright color. The painter signed the work in the lower left corner.^{[7][8][11][12][10]} In the 1906 Salon catalogue, when the work was first exhibited, Rallis added the following verse emphasizing the girl's anger:"

Chained and magnificent, among the trophies of weapons,
her eyes full of hatred shed no tears...
The Greek woman with her forehead held high
defies the Turkish victor,
she will take revenge for her brothers,
crushing his heart!^[9]

Gallery

• 
  The Captive by Theodorus Rallis c. 1885
• 
  Refectory in Mount Athos by Theodorus Rallis c. 1885
• 
  The Slave Market by Otto Pilny c. 1910

Earlier Works Featuring Greek Oppression

• 
  The Massacre at Chios by Eugène Delacroix c. 1824
• 
  Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death by Constance Blanchard c. 1838
• 
  The Greek Slave by Hiram Powers c. 1843