MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

In the first half of the nineteenth century French and British travellers began to explore the unfamiliar regions of the ‘Orient’. This was a collective name for the area known today as the Near and Middle East, which includes Turkey, Palestine and Syria, and parts of North Africa, in particular Egypt, Algiers and Morocco. Europeans had a presence in these regions during intermittent military campaigns and for the purposes of diplomacy and trade, but tourist travel was very rare at this time. Few visitors ventured into the Orient until the second half of the nineteenth century when a tourist industry began to develop. Access to the Middle East and North Africa was made easier with the expansion of railways, steamships travelling across the Mediterranean, improvements in infrastructure and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Thomas Cook offered regular tours to Egypt from 1868 onwards.

INTRODUCTION

DIReCTOR’s FORewORD

mINIsTeR’s FORewORD

Herbert Rose The domed mosque, Tunis 1925 (detail)

Travel literature told of epic journeys, describing the glaring sunlight and desert landscapes of the East and North Africa, the bustle of bazaars, and the splendour of palaces and mosques. During his visit to Egypt in 1850 the French writer Gustave Flaubert wrote: ‘By God, it is such a bewildering chaos of colours that your poor imagination is dazzled as though by continuous fireworks’.2 This exotic world made an impact not only on those who visited it, but on the large numbers of Europeans who knew of the Orient only through travel tales, literature, artworks, photographs and souvenirs brought back by travellers, and from displays at nineteenth-century international exhibitions.

This exhibition features works by various artists who documented and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There is no single school or style that unites these artists; instead it is the motifs that provide the common thread of the genre loosely described as ‘Orientalism’. Most of the works in Imagining the Orient are a combination of the observed and the fictional. The Orient represented a world that was in stark contrast to industrialised nineteenth-century Europe, and Europeans projected their ideas and desires onto this distant place. One of the fascinating aspects of Orientalist images is that they tell us as much about the European imagination as they do about life in the Near and Middle East and North Africa.

Antoine-Jean Gros Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817

THe ARTIsT–TRAvelleR

The French artist Antoine-Jean Gros never travelled to the distant places he represented. He referred to art and literature for descriptions of faraway places and people when he depicted Oriental themes such as Desert Arab, 1817. It was common practice among artists to paint from descriptions and props without having any personal experience of the cultures of the Orient. While this ‘armchair Orientalism’ continued into the second half of the nineteenth century, an increasing number of artists travelled to the Middle East and North Africa in search of new motifs, and sketched from observation as well as the imagination.

The Scottish artist David Roberts was one of the most significant figures in the history of Orientalist art. The first British artist to travel independently to the Middle East and Egypt, he spent three months in Egypt in 1838, followed by an extensive trip to Mount Sinai, Petra, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem in 1839. He returned with

hundreds of drawings and worked with the lithographer Louis Haghe to produce prints for the six-volume publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia: From drawings made on the spot. Although the artist emphasised that his images were based on direct observation, Roberts’s motifs were not free from artistic embellishment. The conventions of European landscape painting informed his observation. Statues of Memnon at Thebes, 1842, for example, is reminiscent of the Romantic pictorial tradition in which human figures are dwarfed by the grandeur of the landscape. Roberts’s work as a set designer and stage painter in London during the 1820s is also evident in this image.

Most artists spent several weeks travelling through the Middle East or North Africa to gather impressions before returning home with drawings, artefacts, textiles and other objects. The English artist John Frederick Lewis was an exception, living in Cairo throughout the 1840s and immersing himself in the local culture to the extent that the writer William Makepeace Thackeray described him as leading a ‘dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life’.3 Many of his most famous works were painted years after his return to England. Lewis worked from sketches and memories, and used many of the objects he had brought back from his travels as props for paintings. Lewis’s attention to detail made his paintings of domestic interiors and street scenes some of the most popular images of the Orient.

Sheard’s painting is a characteristic example of the detailed realism that was the style of choice for most Orientalist painters. In contrast to this type of representation, which renders every detail with photographic accuracy, painters such as Frank Brangwyn and John Lavery depicted their subjects in an Impressionistic style. What all of these artists have in common is that they used a bright palette which was very different from the sombre tones of nineteenth-century Neoclassical painting.

Because of Lewis’s first-hand experience of Egyptian customs and society, his paintings were considered to be authentic depictions of life in the Orient. However, the harem is one motif that was definitely painted from the imagination as men did not have access to these private female quarters. Lewis’s watercolour Study for the harem, c.1850, shows a domestic scene in a Cairo house with the characteristic mashrabiyya or lattice windows in the background. His images of harems may have been based on published accounts written by Western women who had been granted permission to enter these private domestic spaces, or he may have referred to stories told by local women, including his female slave Zuleikah, who had visited harems.

One of the reasons for the European fascination with the Middle East and North Africa was that traditional life in these regions seemed to be untouched by modernisation. Europeans looked to the East to recover a simpler life. The interest in artisanal tradition was a common theme in Orientalism, and one of particular interest in the industrialised West, where such skills were disappearing because of the introduction of mass manufacture. Thomas Sheard’s painting, The Arab blacksmith, c.1900, depicts the traditional craft of the blacksmith as practised by North African desert nomads. European observers perceived such traditions as practices that had remained essentially unchanged since biblical times. The ancient past, it seemed, could be observed here.

(above)David Roberts louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

(below)John lewis Study for The harem c. 1850

Most European artists were overwhelmed by the brilliant light and the expansive landscape they encountered in the Orient. On a trip to Egypt in 1828 the French artist Nestor L’Hôte wrote:

the general effect, the grandeur, the harmony of this magnificent tableau, is what strikes us with a kind of stupor; but to depict it words fail, and it would be necessary in order to render the magic of this marvel, to borrow the sun’s rays and trace the painting with gold and azure.4

The depiction of the unfamiliar landscape presented a challenge to painters because they were not used to cloudless skies and the different quality of light, shadows and reflections. Australian artists, on the other hand, had observed similar conditions at home. Tom Roberts captured the quality of light beautifully in A Moorish doorway, 1883, the earliest painting by an Australian artist in this exhibition. Tom Roberts followed in the footsteps of artists such as David Roberts and John Lewis, travelling to Andalusia in Southern Spain in 1883. Artists came to this southern tip of Europe to paint the exotic cultural landscape formed by 700 years of the Moorish occupation of Andalusia. Roberts’s atmospheric painting of a doorway in Granada is characteristic of the impressionist style he made popular in Australia.

(above) Thomas sheard The Arab blacksmith c. 1900Bendigo Art Gallery, Victoria

(following page, above) Tom Roberts A Moorish doorway 1883

(following page, below) Hilda Rix Nicholas Arab marketplace, Morocco c. 1912 Art Gallery Ballarat, Victoria© Rix Wright Collection

Other Australian artists included in the exhibition, such as Lionel Lindsay, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Ethel Carrick Fox and Herbert Rose, painted tranquil street scenes and everyday life in northern African towns. These motifs were far removed from the epic stories of classic nineteenth-century Orientalism. One of Hilda Rix Nicholas’s favourite motifs was the main market in Tangier, the Grand Soko, located near her hotel. She would spend hours at the market watching people and sketching while locals gathered around her. Working quickly, she captured the vibrant colour and movement of the busy scene. Her Arab marketplace, Morocco, c.1912, is a truely modern painting. In contrast to the realism of Orientalist masterpieces like Sheard’s Arab blacksmith, Rix Nicholas depicts her impression of the market, omitting descriptive detail for the sake of atmosphere. In 1914 the Paris journal Notre Gazette ranked Rix Nicholas among the best painters of Oriental motifs.

I had come to the end of Europe, and now my eyes would see the splendour and havoc of the East.

Alexander William Kinglake, 18441

We are delighted to present Imagining the Orient, a National Gallery of Victoria Touring Exhibition for regional and outer metropolitan communities. We have planned this fascinating show as part of our ongoing commitment to providing access for all Victorians to the NGV’s extensive collections.

Imagining the Orient presents significant paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts from our international and Australian collections. The exhibition explores the ways in which artists experienced and imagined the Orient in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The unfamiliar world of the Middle East and North Africa inspired great curiosity and had a far-reaching influence on Western art and culture. For Australians the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 changed things as it meant that a voyage to or from Europe now offered the possibility of access to Egypt and various parts of the Orient.

I would particularly like to thank both the Minister for the Arts and Arts Victoria for

Artists have long been fascinated and inspired by the unfamiliar. In Imagining the Orient we see how artists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries transferred this fascination into a reading of the ‘Orient’ through their experiences and often through their imagination.

With eighty works from paintings to early photography and decorative arts, this exhibition takes us on a journey to the Middle East and North Africa through the eyes of artists such as Henri Matisse, Hilda Rix Nicholas and Tom Roberts.

The National Gallery of Victoria was reported in 2010 as being the most visited gallery

funding this exhibition through the Major Touring Initiative scheme, and for providing indemnification for the tour. The continued support of Arts Victoria enables us to maintain our series of regional touring exhibitions.

I would like to thank Art Gallery Ballarat, Bendigo Art Gallery and the State Library of Victoria for contributing works to the exhibition.

Many members of NGV staff have worked on Imagining the Orient and its associated publication, education resources and public programs. In particular, I would like to congratulate Petra Kayser for curating such a beautiful exhibition.

We hope you enjoy your own voyage to the Orient.

Gerard VaughanDirector, National Gallery of Victoria

in Australia and the twentieth most visited gallery in the world. By supporting this NGV touring exhibition, the Victorian Government is enabling Mornington Peninsula, Swan Hill, Castlemaine and Hamilton audiences to experience the NGV’s exciting collection outside their own front door.

So relax and be ready to be captivated as you are transported to another time and a far away place in Imagining the Orient.

Peter Batchelor MPMinister for the Arts

MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011

MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011

MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011

MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011

MINTON (manufacturer)England est. 1793Charles TOFT junior (designer)England 1831–1909Covered cup (1879)earthenware(a–b) 22.1 x 15.2 cm diameter (overall)Purchased, 1881 (66.a-b-D1M)

PERIDISactive in Egypt (1880s)Ascension of the Grand Pyramid (Ascension à la Grande Pyramide) (1880s)albumen silver photograph28.2 x 22.1 cmPresented by Jacques Dennis, 1977 (PH15-1977)

PERSIANTile (14th century)earthenware20.7 x 20.7 x 1.5 cmPurchased, 1895 (41-D2)

Hilda RIX NICHOLASAustralian 1884–1961Arab marketplace, Morocco (c. 1912)oil on canvas on cardboard27.3 x 35.1 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaPurchased, 1977 (1977.111)

David ROBERTSScottish 1796–1864, worked in England 1822–64Louis HAGHE (lithographer)Belgian 1806–85, emigrated to England 1823Shrine at the Holy Sepulchre 1839hand-coloured lithograph49 x 32.4 cm (image and sheet)Felton Bequest, 1939 (924-4)

Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842hand-coloured lithographplate 36 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49, volume 534.0 x 39.3 cm (image and sheet, cropped)Felton Bequest, 1939 (926-4)

Entrance to the tombs of the Kings of Thebes – Bab-el-Malouk 1848plate 34 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.4 x 48.9 (image), 41.2 x 61.2cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Grand entrance to the temple of Luxor 1848plate 38 from The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia From Drawings made on the spot by David Roberts R.A., volume 5 published by F. G. Moon, London, 1842–49hand-coloured lithograph32.8 x 49.0 cm (image), 38.6 x 53.6 cm (sheet)Presented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Professor Jenny Zimmer, Member 1997 (1997.223)

Tom ROBERTSEnglish/Australian1856–1931 lived throughout Europe 1881–85, 1903–19(A Moorish doorway) 1883oil on canvas48.3 x 33.3 cmThe Joseph Brown Collection.Presented through the NGV Foundation by Dr Joseph Brown, AO, OBE, Honorary Life Benefactor, 2004 (2004.213)

Herbert ROSEAustralian 1890–1937The domed mosque, Tunis (c. 1925)oil on canvas(62.0 x 75.0 cm)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3455-3)

Market Xauen, Morocco (c. 1935)oil on canvas(50.0 x 60.2 cm)Felton Bequest, 1937 (393-4)

Pascal SEBAHTurkish 1823–86(1) Veiled Turkish woman (Dame turque voilée) (2) Turkish woman at home (Dame turque chez elle)(3) Turkish women (Dames turques) (4) Turkish woman (Dame turque) page 9 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B Roscher in Romania, Italy and Greece) 1882–83(1870s – early 1880s)albumen silver photographs(1) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (2) 13.6 x 10.0 cm; (3) 13.9 x 10.1 cm; (4) 13.8 x 10.2 cm; (1–4) 36.0 x 26.3 cm (page)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.808)

Thomas SHEARDEnglish 1866–1921The Arab blacksmith (c. 1900)oil on canvas115.0 x 163.0 cmBendigo Art Gallery, VictoriaPurchased, 1903 (1903.1)

Gustavo SIMONIItalian 1846–1926The marble Mosque 1879watercolour56.0 x 38.8 cmBequest of Alfred Felton, 1904 (156-2)

TURKISHArcher’s ring (c. 1550)ivory, gold, ruby, emerald3.9 x 3.1 x 1.8 cmGift of Mr M. Stebbings, 1976 (AS107-1976)

TURKISHPlate (late 16th century)earthenware (Iznik ware)6.7 x 35.8 cm diameterPurchased, 1968 (1532-D5)

UNKNOWNCharles H. JEENS (engraver)English 1827–79(Turkish man in a boat) (c. 1860s)engraving6.2 x 7.2 cm (plate), 25.2 x 17.7 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1926 (2741-3)

UNKNOWNactive in Palestine (1860s – 1880s)No title (Bethlehem) (1860s – 1880s)albumen silver photograph13.0 x 19.7 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

UNKNOWNactive throughout Europe and Africa (1870s – early 1880s)(1) No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) (2) No title (Tangier. Moors wearing the Guillaba)pages 30 and 31 in No title (Album of photographs collected by W. H. B. Rosher in Spain, Portugal, Africa and France) 1884early 1880salbumen silver photographs(1) 20.3 x 16.4 cm); (2) 20.2 x 16.5 cm; (1–2) 36.2 x 26.4 cm (page) (each)Gift of Christine E. Wright, Eileen Wright and Robin A. Wright, 2004 (2004.807)

John VARLEY juniorEnglish 1850–1933Nile dhows (1880s)watercolour14.3 x 19.3 cmGift of Arthur C. Jowett, 1935 (234-4)

ZANGAKIGreek, active in Egypt, Algiers, Palestine (1860s–80s)Cairo, Heliopolis obelisk (Caire, obélisque de Heliopolis) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph

27.7 x 21.6 cmPrivate collection, MelbournePyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (1860s–80s)albumen silver photograph22.0 x 28.0 cmPrivate collection, Melbourne

Some of the works listed may not be displayed in each venue due to space restrictions.

First published in 2010 byThe Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria180 St Kilda RoadMelbourne, Victoria 3004, Australiawww.ngv.vic.gov.au

This publication is copyright and all rights are reserved. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced or communicated to the public by any process without prior written permission. Enquiries should be directed to the publisher.

© National Gallery of Victoria 2010

Published for the exhibition Imagining the Orient, touring to: Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, 7 July – 29 August 2010; Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery, 15 October – 28 November 2010; Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum, 15 January – 27 February 2011; and Hamilton Art Gallery, 16 March – 1 May 2011

Curator and brochure text: Petra KayserEditor: Margaret TrudgeonDesign: Dirk HiscockPermissions & copyright: Jennie MoloneyPhotography: Selina OuPublications Officer: Judy ShelvertonPublications Manager: Jasmin ChuaPre-press: Justine FrostCTP and printing: Adams PrintStock: Hanno Silk 300gsm

Indemnification for this exhibition is provided by the Victorian Government.

This project is supported by the Victorian Governmentthrough Arts Victoria’sMajor Touring Initiative.

The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the NGV or the publisher.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

(cover)David Roberts Louis Haghe (lithographer)Statues of Memnon at Thebes 1842 (detail)

List of works

Note to the readerThe list of works conforms to international and National Gallery of Victoria cataloguing standards and formats.Works are arranged in alphabetical order by artist and chronologically within each artist’s listing.Reference is given to the catalogue raisonné of (artist’s name) oeuvre, (author) (title) (date). All measurements are in centimetres to the first decimal point, height x width for two-dimensional objects, height x width x depth or height x diameter for three-dimensional objects. Measurements for watercolours and drawings are represented by sheet size. Measurements for photographs are represented by image size. Measurements in parentheses are sight measurements taken from the front of framed or mounted works.Firm dates for works have been established from the artist’s inscriptions. Dates supported by documentary evidence are in parentheses.The use of c. for circa implies a two-year window either side of the central dateAll works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria unless otherwise stated.Numbers in brackets at the conclusion of the caption are accession numbers of the National Gallery of Victoria and relevant lending institutions.

David BelzyckiManager, Cataloguing

E. G. ADAMSONAustralian 1895–1974No title (Man and mosque) (c. 1930)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 23.7 cmGift of Mr E. V. C. Adamson, 1982 (PH233-1982)

Frank BRANGWYNEnglish 1867–1956In a Turkish garden (c. 1890)oil on wood panel73.8 x 63.5 cmGift of Mr John H. Connell, 1914 (658-2)

Frederick Arthur BRIDGMANAmerican 1847–1928, worked in France 1866–1928An Algerian scene 1878etching15.4 x 26.1 cm (plate), 29.8 x 43.5 cm (sheet)Private collection, Melbourne

Philippe-Joseph BROCARDFrench 1831–96Jug (c. 1880)glass (gilt, enamel)27.4 x 21.2 x 19.1 cmPresented through The Art Foundation of Victoria by Sir Thomas and Lady Travers, Governors, 1982 (D61-1982)

Ethel CARRICK FOXEnglish/Australian 1872–1952 North African street scene (c. 1911)oil on plywood33.2 x 21.8 cmArt Gallery Ballarat, VictoriaGift from Major Basil R. F. MacNay of Argyll, Scotland, nephew of the artist, 1998 (1998.115)

Emile DECOEURFrench 1876-1953Dish (c. 1890–1903)earthenware7.2 x 41.2 cm diameterPresented by Nicholas Bovell, 1988 (D35-1988)

Eugène DELACROIXFrench 1798–1863Arab horsemen (c. 1832)black, white and red chalk22.0 x 28.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1948 (1896–4)

WILLIAM DE MORGAN & CO., London (manufacturer)England 1872–1911William DE MORGAN (designer)England 1839–1917Persian flowering foliage, tile (1872–81)earthenware15.4 x 15.4 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (559-D1M)

BBB, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.3 x 15.2 x 1.4 cmPurchased, 1885 (566-D1M)

Persian tulips and foliage, tile (1882–85)earthenware15.2 x 15.2 x 1.3 cmPurchased, 1885 (561-D1M)

Paul Androuet DU CERCEAUFrench 1623–1710Flowers in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving19.6 x 30.6 (plate), 20.2 x 31.1 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.2-5)

Floral bouquets in Persian style (late 17th century)engraving18.3 x 28.7 (plate), 19.3 x 30.0 cm (sheet)Anonymous gift, 1961 (883.6-5)

ENGLAND, Derbyshire (manufacturer)Tile panel (late 19th century)earthenware(a-nn) 54.4 x 146.5 cm (overall)Purchased, 1897 (354.a-nn-D2)

Thomas FRIEDENSENEnglish 1879–1931, worked in Australia 1921–30Street in Cairo, Egypt 1927etching and aquatint printed in brown ink, and pencil, ed. 40/7530.1 x 18.1 cm (plate), 37.7 x 25.2 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1927 (3525-3)

Omar the tent-maker 1929etching and drypoint printed in brown-black ink, ed. 19/8530.3 x 18.7 cm (plate), 38.7 x 25.8 cm (sheet)Felton Bequest, 1930 (4282-3)

Antoine-Jean GROSFrench 1771–1835Desert Arab (Arabe du desert) 1817lithograph18.7 x 26.3 cm (image), 26.0 x 36.4 cm (sheet)Beraldi VII.260Felton Bequest, 1980 (P148-1980)

William Holman HUNTEnglish 1827–1910The importunate neighbour 1895oil on canvas36.4 x 51.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1905 (205-2)

IRANIANHelmet (early 19th century)bronze, gilt35.0 x 47.0 x 29.0 cmFelton Bequest, 1936 (3629-D3)

Paul JOANOWITCHAustro-Hungarian 1859–1957, worked throughout Europe 1885–1957, Egypt, Turkey and Russia 1886–95)The traitor (1885–90)oil on canvas100.4 x 150.5 cmPurchased, 1890 (p.318.1-1)

François JOMARDFrench 1777–1862Frontispiece 1825in Description de l’Égypte (Description of Egypt), published by Imprimerie de C. L. F. Panckoucke, Paris, volume 1, 2nd edition 1825colour lithograph57.4 x 39.8 cm (image), 71.0 x 52.0 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 913.32 J68)

Owen JONESEnglish 1809–74Arabian no. 2 1868plate 23 in The Grammar of Ornament: Illustrated by Examples from Various Styles of Ornament, published by Bernard Quaritch, London, 2nd edition 1868colour lithograph29.4 x 20.1 cm (image), 33.7 x 22.5 cm (page)State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (RARESEF 745 J72)

Mischa KOGANRussian/Australian 1903–82Tomb of the Virgin Mary, Jerusalem (1920–1930s)gelatin silver photograph37.8 x 28.2 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH29-1987)

Tiberias, Temple Place, Palestine (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph38.0 x 29.8 cmPurchased from Admission Funds, 1987 (PH42-1987)

No title (Rachel’s tomb, Palestine) (1920s – 1930s)gelatin silver photograph27.5 x 37.2 cmPurchased from Admissions Funds, 1987 (PH70-1987)

John LAVERYIrish 1856–1941, worked in France 1881–85, Scotland 1885–96, England 1896–1917In Morocco (c. 1913)oil on canvas200.0 x 174.7 cmFelton Bequest, 1915 (769-2)

John LEWISEnglish 1805–76Study for The harem (c. 1850)black chalk and watercolour35.7 x 49.0 cmBequest of Mrs Lewis, 1908 (371-2)

Lionel LINDSAYAustralian 1874–1961(Algerian man) (1929)page 11 in Algeria sketchbookpencil9.0 x 12.8 cm (page)Felton Bequest, 1961 (1010.1-5)

The barber of Bousaada (1929)etching, plate-tone and soft-ground17.6 x 27.6 cm (plate), 29.5 x 44.5 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 458Felton Bequest, 1940 (1034-4)

A caravanserai, Kairouan (1929)drypoint and plate-tone16.4 x 27.6 cm (plate), 23.3 x 38.4 cm irreg. (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 460Felton Bequest, 1938 (517-4)

Pottery shop, Kairouan (1929)etching and plate-tone17.5 x 25.0 cm (plate), 28.0 x 39.9 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 473Felton Bequest, 1938 (518-4)

Mosque of the Sabres, Kerouan (c. 1936)drypoint and plate-tone printed in brown ink17.6 x 27.7 cm (plate), 21.6 x 34.6 cm (sheet)Mendelssohn 1987, 481Gift of the artist, 1954 (3114.144-4)

Henri MATISSEFrench 1869–1954The Arab blouse (La Chemise Arabe) 1925lithograph, proof54.3 x 44.0 cm (image), 75.5 x 56.1 cm (sheet)Duthuit 464Purchased, 1976 (P99-1976)

Within a short period of time, Europe’s artistic and fashionable circles were becoming familiar with Middle Eastern and North African architecture, costume and decorative arts. A fashion for all things Oriental developed as men and women dressed in shawls and loose-fitting ‘Oriental-style’ clothes, and decorated their homes with Persian carpets and pieces of furniture that emulated the atmosphere of the imagined Orient. In the 1870s Owen Jones created an ‘Arab studio’ in his private home in Kensington, one of several such interiors in London at the time.

Artefacts from the East and North Africa were greatly admired for their geometric and calligraphic patterns. However, their meaning and symbolism were rarely understood. For example, the arabesque is an elaborate design of repeating geometric forms that often echo the shape of plants. The choice of forms and their arrangement is based upon the Islamic view of the world, and the pattern represents an immaterial reality that extends beyond the visible material world, symbolising infinity and the divine.

However, European copies of arabesques do not take this complexity into consideration and imitate the style as pure decoration. The same was the case with the use of Arabic script, which almost none of the artists and craftsmen in Europe could decipher. In their adaptation of calligraphy and geometric patterns these forms were divested of their religious meaning and used as ornamentation. Colours, patterns and motifs from a variety of sources were used to create a composite ‘Islamic’ style. Like the paintings, prints and photographs, these decorative arts represent a peculiarly European image of the Orient.

(left)Owen Jones plate 23 from Grammar of Ornament

(right) Minton (manufacturer) Charles Toft junior (designer) Covered cup 1879

Notes:1 Alexander William Kinglake, Eothen or Traces of travel brought home from the East, Sampson Low, Marston, London, 1913, p. 29.2 Gustave Flaubert, letter to Jules Cloquet, 15 January 1850, cited in Francis Steegmuller (ed.), Flaubert in Egypt: A sensibility on tour, Little, Brown & Co, Boston and Toronto, 1972, pp.79–80.3 William Makepeace Thackeray, Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Chapman & Hall, London, 1846, p. 291.4 Cited in Paul and Janet Starkey (eds), Travellers in Egypt, Tauris, London and New York, 2001, p.124.

The English architect and designer Owen Jones was a particularly influential figure in the popularisation of traditional designs from ancient and non-European cultures. His publication The Grammar of Ornament, 1856, documents distinctive ornamental features in ‘Arabian’, ‘Turkish’, ‘Persian’, and ‘Moresque’ designs. It was a resource for designers and architects, who referred to it as a pattern book. Jones himself used Eastern-inspired designs in the interior decoration of the Crystal Palace, the great exhibition building constructed in mid-nineteenth-century London. These world exhibitions played a crucial role in cultivating the public’s curiosity about Oriental cultures. In London, Paris and Vienna thousands of visitors came every day to see ancient Egyptian monuments, Islamic arts and representations of Oriental society, including interior designs, buildings and reconstructions of entire streets.

Oriental motifs and arabesques have been part of the European vocabulary of design since the Middle Ages, but it was in the nineteenth century that Islamic ornament and colours became very fashionable in textiles, ceramics and glassware. This was because Islamic artefacts and a whole range of artisan objects were brought to Europe from Egypt and the Middle East by collectors, archaeologists and travellers. These exotic imports caused great excitement in Europe, and manufacturers attempted to imitate their distinctive features. The influence of Oriental art on nineteenth-century European decorative arts can be seen in the adoption of new shapes and forms in artefacts and the replication of motifs ranging from arabesques to geometric and calligraphic patterns. This exhibition features a range of artefacts, including Persian tiles, a Turkish ring and Iznik pottery, displayed next to examples of English and French decorative arts that were inspired by Eastern designs. One of the highlights is a set of forty nineteenth-century Darby tiles, replicas of wall tiles in a Cairo mosque and on display for the first time since they were acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria over 100 years ago.

DECORATIVE ARTS

(left)Unknown No title (Tangier. Moors of the richer class at home) early 1880s (detail)

(right)Persian Tile 14th century

These professional studios produced photographs for diverse markets: they ranged from high quality documentary images of sites and local people in traditional dress, some of which were published and shown at international exhibitions, to popular images of monuments, landscapes and portraits that were sold to travellers as souvenirs. In the time before the advent of the portable camera (invented by Kodak in 1888), tourist photographs were purchased from studios and shops en route and pasted into travel albums. Two such albums from the early 1880s are included in the exhibition. They were compiled by the widely travelled W. H. B. Roscher, who bought photographs of cities and sites, as well as portraits of locals, such as women in Turkish dress photographed by Pascal Sebah.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs taken between the 1870s and the 1930s, including an early image of tourists climbing a pyramid and romantic motifs of Oriental towns. The range of images reveals several distinct styles of photography. While photographs often appear to be documentary, they are constructed very carefully Photographers controlled the image via the selection of motif, the process of framing, their choice of exposure and focus and, finally, how the photograph was printed. The pictures taken by Russian-born Australian photographer Mischa Kogan, for example, are composed and framed like paintings, some of which are soft-focused and romantic in their pictorial aesthetic.

Zangaki Pyramid of Cheffren (Pyramide de Cheffren) (detail) 1860s–80s Private collection, Melbourne

Photography was invented in 1839. In the first decades of its use this new technology required an enormous amount of equipment. The task of the travelling photographer, who took pictures of desert landscapes, monuments and towns in the East or North Africa, was particularly cumbersome due to the heavy equipment, the need to carefully position the camera, the treatment of the photographic plate and the very long exposure time required for each photograph. All of these factors had to be carefully controlled in an atmosphere of heat, wind and sand.

In the mid nineteenth century photography studios were set up along travel routes in the Near East and North Africa. The Turkish photographer Pascal Sebah, for example, opened his first studio in the late 1850s in Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. Many more studios were established over subsequent decades in colonised regions and cities along the tourist route. By the 1860s more than thirty such studios existed in French Algeria alone.

PHOTOGRAPHY MORNINGTON PENINSULA

REGIONAL GALLERY 7 July – 29 August 2010

SWAN HILL REGIONAL ART GALLERY 15 October – 28 November 2010

CASTLEMAINE ART GALLERY AND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

15 January – 27 February 2011

HAMILTON ART GALLERY16 March – 1 May 2011