The way of viewing that often focuses on the imagination, emphasis, exaggeration, and distortion of the differences in Arabic cultures and people as compared to European and American cultures is known as Orientalism[1]. Orientalism is used in academics to compare the different cultures involved critically. These depictions habitually include the use of art, more so painting to show the geography, traditions, architecture, and the lifestyle of the communities being featured. Orientalism contains a particular bias that involves the portrayal of Arab civilizations as culturally static, exotic, lacking civility, intellectually subnormal and at times even dangerous. This outlook has been of fundamental importance in justifying western cultural imperialism. Thus, to most observers in the world of the west, the depiction of Orientalism is the gospel truth of the cultural situation in the Near East. As Linda Nochlin argues, “The degree of realism (or lack of it) in individual Orientalist images can hardly be discussed without some attempt to clarify whose reality we are talking about[2].”
First, it is crucial to understand the history behind Orientalism. At the time of the world’s first definition, Europe had just learned and started the colonization of the Arab world. As a result of the inferior East narrative perpetuated by the Orientalism in the West, the Arab world was portrayed as needing rescuing. Therefore, it provided rationalization of the colonization of the region by Europeans. The Near East needed to be built by the West according to the early 19th-century orientalist depictions. This backward situation is seen in first paintings by famous ‘realist’ artists such as Chlebowski[3]. A relevant example of this narrative is the French colonization of Algeria. Therefore, the early oriental depictions of the Arab world provided the basis on which their culture was misinterpreted.
For 30 years, a French entrepreneur was responsible for making postcards of Algerian that became so popular in France. The women in the photographs were supposed to portray the reality of the situation in the region. In contrast, they were just models posing in the photographer’s studio. These images made rounds in Europe as evidence of the backward and exotic culture of the ‘belly dancing Arab women.[4] In essence, the images reveal more about the aim of the French people in Algeria as opposed to the actual reality on the ground. This situation shows an example of how their women are depicted as exotic and exotic for the pleasure of the male European travelers; it is entirely a marketing and business strategy. Additionally, the images reveal the fantasies that the French have about penetrating the harem of Arabic women’s private spaces[5]. Therefore, what was being shown in the oriental images at the time was not narrated from the Arabic culture’s perspective, but the eyes of the French.
In America, the popularization of the orientalism was cemented during the 1890s and 1900s. This reinforcement happened during the World’s Fair in Chicago. James Buel’s photographic book accurately shows the crossover from European to American Orientalism. From the book, one can see a recreated version of Arabic Street. On one of these streets, there is an image of the girl that is highly objectified[6]. The accompanying caption refers to the strange manner of the Egyptians with a list of characteristics that describe them in a way as being backward. As such, the biased interpretation of the Near Eastern culture has found its way throughout the world.
Linda Nochlin’s examination of 19th-century paintings reveals how Orientalism was constructed and built around western values and their expectations of the Arabic people. The popular myth describes Arabs as lazy cruel and sexual. According to Nochlin the detailing and realism employed in the art is a tool used to legitimize the negative stereotypes that come with orientalism. The negative stereotype is perpetuated not only through what is in the images but also through what is excluded[7]. Through leaving out crucial details in the actual painting, it distorts the whole image concerning interpretation.
Jean-Leon Gérôme’s Snake Charmer‘s depiction (Fig. 1.) serves as a good reference to early Oriental paintings[8]. It depicts the western conceptualization of Islamic culture through a deprivation of history and artiness. The attractiveness of the Near Eastern depiction of their culture in the paintings only makes the viewer a spectator as they are not allowed to visit the actual scene. This design effectively serves to separate the said people from the reality of their traditions. Their history is written through the eyes of the painter that does not invite his western audience to the scene to examine the situation. Therefore, the separation is established when the view cannot tell if the figures and locations in the painting are real or just the result of the painter’s fantasy. Western views are then left to perceive whatever is in the art of the truth as they can only gaze upon it.[9] This situation makes objects out of both the viewer and the spectacles of the canvas. Through the lack of authentication, the audience immediately labels the Islamic people as lacking in superiority and assumes that they need western culture to be civilized. Thus, the painting provides a one sided story that is open to misinterpretation in the western world.
These paintings lack history in them and are therefore viewed a timeless. After the European colonization of the eastern world, a lot of changes were introduced concerning infrastructure and technology. However, the painters still portrayed a charming and undeveloped image of the Near Eastern culture. In addition, the paintings did not depict the violence that came with Western civilization[10]. These unchanging images served as a distraction to the world of the west of from the reality of the gruesome violence in the region at the time. Viewers in the west screened these images as aesthetically appealing due to the shadowing effect of the produced by an omission of historical facts in the paintings.
According to Nochlin’s sentiment, “No other artist has so inexorably eradicated all traces of the picture plane as Gérôme, denying us any clue to the artwork as a literal flat surface” tell of his other technique employed to alter the perception of Arabs[11]. This statement refers to the successful endeavor by the said artist to exclude all artistry from the image. He does so by trying to make the Snake Charmer image look like a picture of a scene as opposed to painting. The photographic realism in Gérôme’s style makes for a picture that people can perceive as the factual reality at the scene. This naturalism makes the image open to biased interpretation from a western audience. Furthermore, this style serves another metaphoric purpose. The worn out neglected architecture in the paintings symbolizes the laziness and corruption of the Islamic culture at the time. Thereby, the lavish realism helped spread negative stereotypes about the Near Eastern people. Consequently, whatever is on the image was emphasized as the intended truth from the painter’s perspective and is circulated the world depicting a distorted version of Islamic reality.
The realism in Oriental art equally served as a tool to illustrate white superiority over Islamic culture while representing male dominance through sexualized themes of possession and slavery[12]. The universal idealization of male power through representations of naked women was a recurring theme in the paintings. Gérôme’s Slave Market (Fig. 2.) piece captures in details this concept[13]. The public’s reaction to it was the assumption that it must be true due to the high amount of convincing imagery. This painting played a crucial role in solidifying the notion that males had power over women and subsequently white power over darker races. Additionally, the sexualization and eroticization of Islamic women created a whole “other” label for them
In essence, it has been almost three decades since Nochlin’s critical review and enough time to rethink Oriental art[14]. Her views from a different perspective can be described as purely polemic and a bit hysterical. Nochlin looks at every Oriental art as a direct symbol of the prevailing political reality where the painter in the absence of the historical context has an imperialistic agenda. This assumption may not have been the reality, and maybe the artist traveled to the Near East because they loved their culture and was not there on a mission to rape it. Therefore, over the years, many people have wondered if her perspective on Oriental art was exaggerated.
Developments in Oriental art review have interesting views. The painting of Napoleon and his General Staff (Fig. 3.) has been argued to a piece that captures two Gérôme’s criticized styles. The art incorporates both orientalism and a historical theme. According to Earl shin, the painting symbolizes more about Napoleon than it does about the backwardness of the Islamic people. He is seen to been resting on a beast of the burden in his weary march after suffering the sullenness of disappointed ambition. When you consider the above example, several points can be made. Considering that history was one of the artist’s main themes imperialistic agenda in the painting as it clearly depicts the defeat of Napoleon[15]. Similar to Gérôme, many other orientalist painters used history as a recurrent theme despite Nochline’s claim that there lacked history. Other reviews define Orientalism as a form of Romantic affiliation between history and art which is closely related[16].
When it comes to Oriental art, there is a love-hate relationship between most people and Gérôme’s work. His style has been described as smooth and very precise regarding details. This technique is not new to the world of painting as great artists have employed it throughout history such as Ingres. Therefore, the technique alone cannot be used to classify his paintings as imperialistic. In later years, his work has been described as being more complicated than the objectification of the east by the west. A contemporary artist from Morocco, Lalla Essaydi, admits to having a conflicted relationship with Gérôme’s art. Therefore, there seems to be a consensus among modern scholars that Gérôme’s work should receive a certain amount of appreciation.
Similarly, contemporary orientalism scholars agree that there is no justification for paintings depicting naked women in public[17]. Islamic culture is very reserved about the appearance of women, thus, this particular depiction is a form of insult to their culture. Consequently, such oriental images are still in circulation in modern society. This situation has not only been seen in mass media but also in movies such as the Prince of Persia that has been criticized for a biased depiction of Near Eastern culture. Modern Near Eastern artists and scholars, especially from the Islamic society, seek to restore the dignity of Middle Eastern women and their cultural pride. Essaydi, for instance, points out that it is not a question of academic study alone as a Western depiction of Eastern people has had a real impact in the Middle East. She notes women in the East have been introduced to the veil to protect them from the Western gaze that has changed their culture.[18] She recounts that while growing up the veil was less popular in Morocco that it is currently. Therefore, modern artists and scholars are trying to reverse the real life effects of the orientalist depictions.
In essence, Orientalism takes an exaggerated view of Arabic cultures in comparison to western ones. It mainly includes paintings that capture the different cultures being compared. These portraits serve as the eyes into the way of life of Eastern people, but the obvious cultural bias has been used to justify imperialism. A pre-eminent style in the paintings is the level of realism that begs the question, “whose reality is it?” 19th-century paintings that aimed to capture the Arab world portrayed it as ‘different’ from western culture. According to Linda Nochlin, the realist approach used in the paintings is used to justify the negative stereotypes associated with Arabs at the time. Using Gérôme’s Snake Charmer painting, Nochlin maintains the artist uses two tools to separate the viewer from the actual scene on the ground. The lack of verification if what is on the painting automatically makes the western audience assume the Arabic people are not civilized. Furthermore, she asserts that Gérôme’s paintings do not capture the real violence associated with the French occupation of the East. She also notes that Eastern art has helped shape Western stereotypes about the East and Gérôme’s work has been at the core of it.
Considering that Nochlin’s review was almost thirty years ago, some opinions have changed while others have remained the same. Most modern scholars suggest that her account was hyperbolic as maybe all Gérôme wanted to do was capture history in an artistic manner. Nochlin has criticized Napoleons’ painting by the artist as being too imperialistic while in contrast a lot of contemporary reviews agree that it is simply a depiction of his defeat. Even though Gérôme’s work has remained controversial, modern scholars and artists argue that he deserves credit for his talent. However, Oriental art has been themed with so much objectification of the East that it has affected their culture. Modern artists are trying to paint a different picture to remedy the situation. Thus, regarding of reality, Oriental art captured the imagination of the artist as opposed to the actual culture of the Near Eastern people.
List of Illustrations
Fig. 1. Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Snake Charmer, 1879, oil on canvas (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts).
Fig. 2. Jean-Léon Gerome, The Slave Market, 1866, oil on canvas (Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts).
Fig. 3. Jean-Léon Gérôme, Napoléon and His General Staff, 1867, Oil on Panel, (Andrew, Claton-Payne, London).
Bibliography
Ackerman, Gerald M. Jean-Léon Gérôme: His Life, His Work. Paris: ACR Editions, 2008.
Buller, Rachel Epp. “Un/veiled: feminist art from the Arab/Muslim diaspora.” Al-Raida Journal (2007): 16-20.
Dahesh Museum, Lisa Small. Highlights from the Dahesh Museum Collection. New York: The Museum, 1999.
Franits, Wayne E. Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2008.
Hassan, Waïl S. Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab-American and Arab-British Literature. 2014.
Jullian, Philippe. The Orientalists: European Painters of Eastern Scenes. Oxford: Phaidon, 1977.
King, Richard. Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and” The Mystic East.”. London: Routledge, 2013.
Lewis, Reina. Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity and Representation. London: Routledge, 2013.
Nochlin, Linda. The politics of vision: Essays on nineteenth-century art and society. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
Pamuk, Orhan. Istanbul: Memories and the City. New York: Knopf, 2004.
Yeğenoğlu, Meyda. Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
[1] Philippe Jullian, The Orientalists: European Painters of Eastern Scenes (Oxford: Phaidon, 1977), 28.
[2] Linda Nochlin, The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, (New York: Harper & Row). 118.
[3] Julian The Orientalists: European Painters of Eastern Scenes, 28.
[4] Meyda Yeğenoğlu, Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 45.
[5] Yeğenoğlu, Colonial Fantasies: Towards a Feminist Reading of Orientalism, 45.
[6] Orha Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul: Memories and the City (New York: Knopf, 2004), 39.
[7] Nochlin, The Politics of Vision, 120.
[8] Gerald M Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme: His Life, His Work (Paris: ACR Editions, 2008), 188.
[9] Ackerman, Jean-Léon Gérôme: His Life, His Work, 188.
[10] Nochlin, The Politics of Vision, 123.
[11] Nochlin, The Politics of Vision, 188.
[12] Waïl S Hassan, Immigrant Narratives: Orientalism and Cultural Translation in Arab-American and Arab-British Literature (2014), 10.
[13] Nochlin, The Politics of Vision, 190.
[14] W Wayne E Franits, Dutch Seventeenth-Century Genre Painting: Its Stylistic and Thematic Evolution (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 2008), 1
[15]Lisa Small Dahesh Museum, Highlights from the Dahesh Museum Collection (New York: The Museum, 1999), 64.
[16] Richard King, Orientalism and Religion: Post-Colonial Theory, India and” The Mystic East.” (London: Routledge, 2013), 5.
[17] Reina Lewis, Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity, and Representation (London: Routledge, 2013), 34.
[18] Buller, Rachel Epp. “Un/veiled: feminist art from the Arab/Muslim diaspora.” Al-Raida Journal (2007): 16
