Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien

As part of the Western construction of an Eastern myth, painting was very soon mobilized to support written texts, so as to offer images which now appear to be more informative on their creators (and on their audiences) than on the realities they claimed to document. One of the “imposed figures”of t...

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Main Author: Laurent Bury
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte" 2009-12-01
Series:Sillages Critiques
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/1984
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author Laurent Bury
author_facet Laurent Bury
author_sort Laurent Bury
collection DOAJ
description As part of the Western construction of an Eastern myth, painting was very soon mobilized to support written texts, so as to offer images which now appear to be more informative on their creators (and on their audiences) than on the realities they claimed to document. One of the “imposed figures”of the extended Grand Tour, the harem, was painted by J.F. Lewis and photographed by R. Fenton, whose works clearly reveal the artificiality of their subject. Victorian Orientalism also implied a “re-orientalisation” of the Christian myth; artists as diverse as David Wilkie or William Holman Hunt were motivated by their quest for authenticity, even though the racist prejudice then prevalent had to be taken into account. A vision of the East was thus elaborated to fit the expectations of the public, a vision that was aesthetically more satisfactory than would have been a faithful reproduction of reality.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1272-3819
1969-6302
language English
publishDate 2009-12-01
publisher Centre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"
record_format Article
series Sillages Critiques
spelling doaj-art-220e7ca079274de696d31b7c2238cf702025-01-30T13:48:21ZengCentre de Recherche "Texte et Critique de Texte"Sillages Critiques1272-38191969-63022009-12-011010.4000/sillagescritiques.1984Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorienLaurent BuryAs part of the Western construction of an Eastern myth, painting was very soon mobilized to support written texts, so as to offer images which now appear to be more informative on their creators (and on their audiences) than on the realities they claimed to document. One of the “imposed figures”of the extended Grand Tour, the harem, was painted by J.F. Lewis and photographed by R. Fenton, whose works clearly reveal the artificiality of their subject. Victorian Orientalism also implied a “re-orientalisation” of the Christian myth; artists as diverse as David Wilkie or William Holman Hunt were motivated by their quest for authenticity, even though the racist prejudice then prevalent had to be taken into account. A vision of the East was thus elaborated to fit the expectations of the public, a vision that was aesthetically more satisfactory than would have been a faithful reproduction of reality.https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/1984paintingorientalismnineteenth centuryGreat BritainLewisJohn Frederick
spellingShingle Laurent Bury
Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
Sillages Critiques
painting
orientalism
nineteenth century
Great Britain
Lewis
John Frederick
title Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
title_full Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
title_fullStr Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
title_full_unstemmed Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
title_short Faire voir l'Orient : réflexion sur un artifice victorien
title_sort faire voir l orient reflexion sur un artifice victorien
topic painting
orientalism
nineteenth century
Great Britain
Lewis
John Frederick
url https://journals.openedition.org/sillagescritiques/1984
work_keys_str_mv AT laurentbury fairevoirlorientreflexionsurunartificevictorien