In the European imagination, the Ottoman Empire had for centuries stood as an emblem of luxury, lasciviousness, and despotism. Although the empire’s purported excesses had long been a subject of the visual arts in Europe, it was not until the nineteenth century that images of the ‘Orient’ gained widespread acclaim across the continent. Popularized first by artists like Eugène Delacroix and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and later by the likes of John Frederick Lewis and Jean-Léon Gérôme, this style of painting was coined ‘Orientalist’ art.
Orientalist art took as its focus the representation of people and places from the modern-day regions of North Africa and the Middle East, as they were imagined to be by Europeans. Although many Orientalist artists travelled and lived in the region, the artworks that they created represented a timeless fantasy, one that was equally appealing and appalling to their European audiences.
This course enters the complex world of Orientalist art to draw out the realities, contradictions, and political motivations behind this visually stunning style. Beginning with eighteenth-century turquerie, we will uncover the ways that global political events shaped the ways that French and British artists approached their subjects. Moving across painting, architecture, ceramics, and photography, we will see how Orientalist art manifested itself across a variety of media. In addition to the European artists that we encounter, we will be introduced to Ottoman artists producing work from the ‘other side’ of the Orientalist political and artistic divide.