The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting

About this book

With its unprecedented focus on the history of Orientalism in British art this handsome book places the British within the story of how the genre was established in the 19th centurya story heretofore dominated by the French. Featuring both well-known and rarely seen paintings together with sketches and photographs this volume examines the work of British artists who engaged with Middle Eastern themes over three centuries from the 1620s to the eclipse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. Included are works by Joshua Reynolds J. F. Lewis W. H. Hunt David Wilkie John Singer Sargent William Holman Hunt J.M.W. Turner Roger Fenton Andrew Geddes and Edward Lear. Many of their images are or purport to be the result of direct observation of actual places in the Middle East. The book spotlights numerous topics of timely cultural interest including the cross-pollination of British and Islamic artistic traditions as well as Western myths about the Islamic world in relation to artists actual experiences. Exhibition Schedule: Yale Center for British Art (February 7 April 27 2008) Tate Britain London (June 4 August 31 2008) Pera Museum Istanbul Turkey (October 2008 January 2009) Sharjah Art Museum Sharjah United Arab Emirates (late February April 2009)