Author(s): Roger Benjamin

Art

In the 19th and early 20th century, painters and photographers from many countries travelled for inspiration throughout the Near East and North Africa. Newly available in paperback, this comprehensive catalogue surveys ways of seeing and representing Orientalist scenes, from Delacroix and Ingres to Matisse and Klee. 19th-century photographers and Australian artists, women painter-travellers and indigenous artists provide a fresh perspective on the subject. Three essays analyse the fascination for Orientalist themes held by European and Australian artists and 19th-century photographers travelling to the Middle East. The fourth essay is an incisive analysis of the developments of a post-colonial market for this imagery. Each of the 124 paintings and 50 original 19th-century photographs in the exhibition is illustrated in full colour and subjected to a critical analysis, and biographies of the artists, a map and selected bibliography are also included.