What is Orientalism?

Orientalism is an art movement from the 19th century that was built on visual representations romance and intrigue. The term refers to visions of Middle Eastern and North African lands by European artists, and often combined reality with fantasy to create fuelled by curiosity and a deep-rooted admiration of unfamiliar worlds. 

Though interest in Islamic cultures dates as far back as the Renaissance and Baroque eras, Orientalism as we know it grew in tandem with Romanticism in the 19th century. The two movements, although distinct, overlapped stylistically. Early Orientalist artists, such as Eugène Delacroix, captured the Middle East as a land of extremes: erotic, violent and untamed. However, over time, subject matters became less tumultuous, with genre scenes becoming increasingly popular as artists sought to capture everyday life in these distant lands. 

Key proponents of the Orientalist movement include the French artists Delacroix and Jean-Léon Gérôme, the British painter John Frederick Lewis, the German and Austrian Gustav Bauernfeind and Ludwig Deutsch. The styles, subject matters and painterly techniques varied from country to country. British artists tended to try and depict the reality of what they saw in front of them. For example, David Roberts recorded historical sites across Egypt and the Holy Land with great topographical precision. French artists tended to create fantastical scenes that created a more romanticised vision of the Orient, with a common subject matter being languid harem scenes. The Austrian artist Deutsch seized public imagination with his documentary scenes of contemporary life, depicting architecture and domestic interiors in meticulous detail. 

Orientalists did not often paint in-situ, instead making sketches (and later, taking photographs) of their travels to inform their paintings once they returned to their European studios. Many artists also brought back a huge range of exotic objects to use as props within their paintings - across certain oeuvres, one will notice that the same vases, carpets and other pieces reappear.

Today, Orientalist art is now a flourishing category within the art market. During the 19th century, indigenous Middle Eastern artists rarely documented contemporary life through figurative depictions due to the Islamic edict against such imagery. This means that Orientalist art is not only an important stylistic movement but also a rare and invaluable historical record and holds a particular resonance with institutional and private collectors from across the wider Islamic world.