Orientalism refers to visual and literary representations of the Near East, usually by Western artists in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The term gained opprobrium through the efforts of Edward Said, a cultural studies theorist with a typically one-sided interpretation. According to Said, Orientalism denigrated the peoples and cultures it depicted, making them appear fit for subjugation in the age of globe-spanning colonial empires.
But reality is too complicated to be contained within any one theory. Yes, some Orientalists were guilty as Said charged. Others were interested simply in looking at other cultures (with varying degrees of understanding) or were fascinated by the region’s sunlight and colors. And there were others who embraced one or another Near Eastern culture as an alternative to the stultifying society from whence they came.
A pushback against Said’s narrow thesis has been underway and is manifest in James Parry’s Orientalist Lives: Western Artists in the Middle East 1830-1920. Parry examines the lives of dozens of Western painters, European and American, who depicted the Near East within his time frame. For some, like John Singer Sargent, Orientalism was a brief phase occasioned by a lucrative commission. Others saw Orientalism as a long-term career move at a time of high interest in visual depictions of the Holy Land and Egypt. However, many of the artists in Orientalist Lives were genuinely fascinated by what they encountered in their travels and sojourns.
While most of Parry’s artists could be described as white and male, there were women among them such as Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann, “able to gain access to spheres of life denied to her male peers.” The sensibilities and backgrounds of the artists varied greatly and included “the deeply conservative” as well as “the socially aspirational and free-spirited.” The “hugely wealthy” along with the “financially desperate” set forth to ancient lands with brushes and easels. Some came to paint biblical scenes. Others converted to Islam.
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Complicating easy definitions were artists such as Osman Hamdi, a Turk interpreting his own country, and Russians such as Vasily Vereshchagin whose empire was Eastern from the perspective of the West. By the end of the 19th century, some Orientalists fought a rear-guard action against modern art while others became Oriental Impressionists. Included in the book is Paul Klee, usually associated with German expressionism and the Bauhaus, but whose visits to North Africa yielded watercolors that reflected his experience.
Despite the campaign by Said’s followers to brand all Orientalist artists as agents of imperialism, Parry finds that most were “insightful free spirits who reveled in their travels, made the most of the opportunities that came their way, and enjoyed being ambassadors for the Orient once back in their home countries.” Nowadays, the art depicted in the many full color illustrations of Orientalist Lives is prized by collectors in the Arab world.
