23-21 Victorian Art - Orientalism - Video

Orientalism was a common and popular theme for Victorian painting. Like the medieval and the classical it provided a view of another world, an imaginary world. This was a world that was constructed to satisfy the Victorian expectations of the Orient. The models were often western women and although the scenes were set in the Middle East they rarely reflected the reality of life there.

An important reason for the interest in the Middle East in England was that it was the site of many Biblical stories and artists wanted to see the landscape and cities themselves.

The most famous book on the subject is 'Orientalism' (1978) by Edward Said (1935-2003. He argues that the Orient in Western literature and art is an artificial construction based on the West’s patronising perceptions and fictional creations.