Customer Reviews

Orientalism in Art

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

This lavish volume shows the strong influence of Oriental themes on Nineteenth Century European art. The European fascination with everything Oriental is evident in the wide range of paintings in this book. The author explains how and why the Oriental subjects became so pervasive. She draws extensively on the writings of the artists themselves and their critics to provide the background for this movement. The book is thoroughly illustrated in full color of the highest quality. Subject matter includes striking landscapes & architecturals, historical scenes, native peoples, sensual women & harem scenes. This book is appealing on different levels. As a coffee table book it is beautiful to browse. As a scholarly work it brings together and makes sense of many artists' work within a common cultural theme.

My review pertains to a paperback entitled "Orientalism" by Christine Peltre published in 2004 by Editions Terrail. I assume this is the same book as "Orientalism in Art". Christine Peltre is a French academic who has written a cursory introduction to the theme of Orientalism in Western Art. Peltre's chapters present different themes in Orientalism which she illustrates with a representative pictures. These themes include such topics as "The Invention of the Meditteranean","From Decoration to Collection" and "Serving Colonialism". The topics are interesting but she only covers them briefly.

"Orientalism" the paperback, can be purchased for around twenty dollars and is a good value. The pictures are well reproduced and the writing is decent. I would have given it five stars but there is a better value out there for the money. For someone new to Orientalism, I would first recommend "The Orient in Western Art" by Gerard Georges Lemaire. It costs about the same as Peltre's "Orientalism" and is a much larger book with more paintings and better written chapters. Finally, if you can find a copy of Kristian Davies, "The Orientalists" at a reasonable price, pick it up. It is probably the best single source in English for the topic of Orientalism in Western Art.

This is an exquisite reference text. The plates are beautiful. I was very pleased with the range of artists and their respective works. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

Fads in art come and go but one rather consistently recurring fascination among artists is the influence of Orientalism - in painting, sculpture, garden, design and architecture. Christine Peltre has written a fine history of the 'discovery' of Oriental art in the 19th century by traveling artists and artists who observed the influx of Oriental or Eastern objets d'art. She weaves a fine story, much like a novel, explaining the influences on various artists and how they incorporated the Oriental feeling into their work.

Peltre includes among the artists well known for their use of Orientalsim - Jean-Léon Gérôme, Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Jacques-Louis David, and Eugène Fromentin, Eugène Delacroix - along with other artists whose names may not be as well known, eg the Scottish painter David Roberts, and British painter John Frederick Lewis. The emphasis in this book is on the French School, but Peltre goes on to include more contemporary-style painters such as Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse and August Macke. Her commentary is rich in information and she offers fine references for additional information about this flow of Orientalism into art. The reproductions are generous and of very high quality. Very worthwhile resource book. Grady Harp, April 11