The Orient Imagined: East and West at The Met

Napoleon Before the Sphinx (Oedipus), ca. 1863-86,
oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

I recently visited Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, an exhibition I had been looking forward to for some time. Bringing together paintings, textiles, ceramics, arms and armor, and other works from both Europe and the Islamic world, it explores how nineteenth-century artists encountered (and sometimes imagined) the cultures of the East.

The exhibition highlights the extent to which many European artists romanticized and idealized the Orient, frequently blending observation with fantasy. Beautifully presented and filled with remarkable objects, it is well worth seeing for anyone interested in art, history, or the long and storied relationship between East and West.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, June 22nd, Feast of San Paolino di Nola

Napoleon in Cairo, ca. 1863-68, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

(L) Moorish Bath, 1870, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme.
(R) A Bashi-Bazouk, 1875, oil on canvas, Charles Bargue

The Snake Charmer, ca. 1879, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

Dance of the Almeh, 1863, oil on wood, Jean-Léon Gérôme

(L) Bashi-Bazouk, ca. 1868-69, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme.
(R) Bashi-Bazouk, ca. 1868-70, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

A Greek Man on a Precipice, ca. 1822-24, oil on canvas, Théodore Géricault

Man Meditating over the Our'an, 1902, oil on canvas, Osman Hamdi Bey

(L) Dervish at the Children's Tomb, 1903, oil on canvas, Osman Hamdi Bey.
(R) The Grief of the Pasha, 1885, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

Odalisque in Grisaille, ca. 1824-34, oil on canvas,
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and workshop

Scene in a Harem (Un Envoi de Serbie), 1876, oil on canvas,
Benjamin-Constant (Jean-Joseph-Benjamin Constant)

(L) An Ottoman Man in the Artist's Studio, ca. 1823-26, oil on canvas, Auguste-Xavier Leprince. (R) Girl in a Courtyard, Algiers, 1886, oil on wood, Philippe Pavy

The Great Bath at Bursa, 1885, oil on canvas, Jean-Léon Gérôme

Sketch for "The Revolt of Calro, October 21st, 1798," ca. 1809-10, oil and ink on paper, laid down on canvas, Anne Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson

(L) Portrait of a "Mamelouk," 1810, oil on canvas, Horace Vernet.
(R) Egyptian Woman, 1890-91, oil on canvas, John Singer Sargent

The Turkish Patrol (Cadji-Bey, Chief of Police at Smyrna, Making His Rounds),
1830-31 Oil on canvas, Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps

(L) Jewish Woman of Algiers Seated on the Ground, 1846, watercolor over graphite on wove paper, Théodore Chassériau. (R) Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters, July 1832, watercolor over graphite on wove paper, Eugène Delacroix

Visit to a Jewish Bride in Tangier, ca. 1832-33,
watercolor on paper, Eugène Delacroix

Helmets with mark of the Ottoman arsenal, formerly in the collection of Jean-Léon Gérôme, attributed to eastern Turkey or Iran, Aq Qoyunlu period (1378-1508), ca. 1450-1500, steel, silver, copper alloy, probably Turkey, Ottoman period (ca. 1299-1923), late 15th-16th century, steel, copper alloy, silver, gold

Pair of flintlock pistols, probably Albanian, Ottoman period,
19th century, wood, steel, silver, silver wire