Orientalism

In art history, literature and cultural studies, orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern world (or "Orient") by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world. Orientalist painting, particularly of the Middle East,^[1] was one of the many specialties of 19th-century academic art, and Western literature was influenced by a similar interest in Oriental themes.

This article is about the imitation or depiction of Eastern culture. For the Christian denomination, see Oriental Orthodoxy. For the book, see Orientalism (book).

Since the publication of Edward Said's Orientalism in 1978, much academic discourse has begun to use the term 'Orientalism' to refer to a general patronizing Western attitude towards Middle Eastern, Asian, and North African societies. In Said's analysis, 'the West' essentializes these societies as static and undeveloped—thereby fabricating a view of Oriental culture that can be studied, depicted, and reproduced in the service of imperial power. Implicit in this fabrication, writes Said, is the idea that Western society is developed, rational, flexible, and superior.^[2] This allows 'Western imagination' to see 'Eastern' cultures and people as both alluring and a threat to Western civilization.^[3]

Chinese inspiration/Chinoiserie - Chinese House, Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, Germany, by Johann Gottfried Büring, 1755–1764^[29]

Chinese inspiration/Chinoiserie: Chinese Pavilion, Ekerö Municipality, Sweden, by Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz, 1763–1769^[30]

Chinese inspiration/Chinoiserie: Pagod, based on Asian figures of Budai by Johann Joachim Kändler, c. 1765, hard paste porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City^[31]

Egyptian inspiration/Egyptian Revival: Table, 1775–1780, wood, carved, painted, and partly gilded, and black granite top not original to table, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Islamic inspiration: Turkish Tent, Hagaparken, Stockholm, Sweden, by Louis Jean Desprez, 1787^[32]

Islamic inspiration: Royal Pavilion, Brighton, UK, by John Nash, 1787–1823^[33]

Chinese inspiration/Chinoiserie: Chinese Tower in the Englischer Garten, Munich, Germany, by Johann Baptist Lechner, 1789–1790, reconstructed in 1952

Egyptian inspiration/Egyptian Revival: Portico of the Hôtel Beauharnais, Paris, L.E.N. Bataille, c. 1804^[34]

Islamic inspiration: Vase, c. 1867, porcelain, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Japanese inspiration/Japonisme: Cabinet, by Léon Dromard, c.1874–1889, pear wood, Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris

Egyptian inspiration/Egyptian Revival: Interior of the Temple maçonnique des Amis philanthropes, Brussels, Belgium, 1877–1879, by Adolphe Samyn, with the help of Ernest Hendrickx, J. De Blois and Alban Chambon

Islamic inspiration: Vase Espoir, by Émile Gallé, 1889, acid-etched glass, with enamelled and gilt decoration, Musée de l'École de Nancy, Nancy, France

Islamic inspiration: Turkish Pavilion at the 1900 Paris Exposition, Paris, by Émile Dubuisson, c.1900^[35]

Japanese inspiration: Mascaron of the Praha hlavní nádraží, Prague, the Czech Republic, designed by Josef Fanta, 1901–1909

Islamic inspiration: Ceiling in the Filitti House (Calea Dorobanților no. 18), Bucharest, by Ernest Doneaus, c.1910^[36]

Thai inspiration - Monumental corbels of a Société financière française et coloniale headquarter (Rue des Mathurins no. 53), Paris, unknown architect, c.1910

Indian inspiration - Baron Empain Palace, Heliopolis, Egypt, by Alexandre Marcel, 1911

Islamic inspiration: Fancy dress costume, by Paul Poiret, 1911, metal, silk, cotton, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Japanese inspiration/Japonisme: Cover of Vogue, November 15, 1911, by George Wolfe Plank, chromolithograph, multiple locations^[37]

Mix of Egyptian Revival and Art Deco: Le Louxor Cinema, Paris, by Henri Zipcy, 1919-1921^[38]

The Moresque style of Renaissance ornament is a European adaptation of the Islamic arabesque that began in the late 15th century and was to be used in some types of work, such as bookbinding, until almost the present day. Early architectural use of motifs lifted from the Indian subcontinent is known as Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture. One of the earliest examples is the façade of Guildhall, London (1788–1789). The style gained momentum in the west with the publication of views of India by William Hodges, and William and Thomas Daniell from about 1795. Examples of "Hindoo" architecture are Sezincote House (c. 1805) in Gloucestershire, built for a nabob returned from Bengal, and the Royal Pavilion in Brighton.

Turquerie, which began as early as the late 15th century, continued until at least the 18th century, and included both the use of "Turkish" styles in the decorative arts, the adoption of Turkish costume at times, and interest in art depicting the Ottoman Empire itself. Venice, the traditional trading partner of the Ottomans, was the earliest centre, with France becoming more prominent in the 18th century.

Chinoiserie is the catch-all term for the fashion for Chinese themes in decoration in Western Europe, beginning in the late 17th century and peaking in waves, especially Rococo Chinoiserie, c. 1740–1770. From the Renaissance to the 18th century, Western designers attempted to imitate the technical sophistication of Chinese ceramics with only partial success. Early hints of Chinoiserie appeared in the 17th century in nations with active East India companies: England (the East India Company), Denmark (the Danish East India Company), the Netherlands (the Dutch East India Company) and France (the French East India Company). Tin-glazed pottery made at Delft and other Dutch towns adopted genuine Ming-era blue and white porcelain from the early 17th century. Early ceramic wares made at Meissen and other centers of true porcelain imitated Chinese shapes for dishes, vases and teawares (see Chinese export porcelain).

Pleasure pavilions in "Chinese taste" appeared in the formal parterres of late Baroque and Rococo German palaces, and in tile panels at Aranjuez near Madrid. Thomas Chippendale's mahogany tea tables and china cabinets, especially, were embellished with fretwork glazing and railings, c. 1753–1770. Sober homages to early Xing scholars' furnishings were also naturalized, as the tang evolved into a mid-Georgian side table and squared slat-back armchairs that suited English gentlemen as well as Chinese scholars. Not every adaptation of Chinese design principles falls within mainstream "chinoiserie". Chinoiserie media included imitations of lacquer and painted tin (tôle) ware that imitated japanning, early painted wallpapers in sheets, and ceramic figurines and table ornaments. Small pagodas appeared on chimneypieces and full-sized ones in gardens. Kew has a magnificent Great Pagoda designed by William Chambers. The Wilhelma (1846) in Stuttgart is an example of Moorish Revival architecture. Leighton House, built for the artist Frederic Leighton, has a conventional facade but elaborate Arab-style interiors, including original Islamic tiles and other elements as well as Victorian Orientalizing work.

After 1860, Japonism, sparked by the importing of ukiyo-e, became an important influence in the western arts. In particular, many modern French artists such as Claude Monet and Edgar Degas were influenced by the Japanese style. Mary Cassatt, an American artist who worked in France, used elements of combined patterns, flat planes and shifting perspective of Japanese prints in her own images.^[28] The paintings of James Abbott McNeill Whistler's The Peacock Room demonstrated how he used aspects of Japanese tradition and are some of the finest works of the genre. California architects Greene and Greene were inspired by Japanese elements in their design of the Gamble House and other buildings.

Egyptian Revival architecture became popular in the early and mid-19th century and continued as a minor style into the early 20th century. Moorish Revival architecture began in the early 19th century in the German states and was particularly popular for building synagogues. Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture was a genre that arose in the late 19th century in the British Raj.

. L'Orient et la peinture française.

Alazard, Jean

Behdad, Ali. 2013. Photography's Orientalism: New Essays on Colonial Representation. . 224 pages.

Getty Publications

Benjamin, Roger. 2003. Orientalist Aesthetics, Art, Colonialism and French North Africa: 1880–1930. .

University of California Press

Peltre, Christine. 1998. Orientalism in Art. New York: . ISBN 0-7892-0459-2.

Abbeville Publishing Group

Rosenthal, Donald A. 1982. Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800–1880. Rochester, NY: , University of Rochester.

Memorial Art Gallery

Stevens, Mary Anne, ed. 1984. The Orientalists: Delacroix to Matisse: European Painters in North Africa and the Near East (exhibition catalogue). London: .

Orientalism

Alazard, Jean

Getty Publications

University of California Press

Abbeville Publishing Group

Memorial Art Gallery

Royal Academy of Arts

The Orientalist Painters

Arab world in art

Arab women in art