Tag: Lubin House
The Lure of Egypt
19th Century Orientalism paintings have seldom caught my eyes. There is a great painting of Cario streets by Louis Comfort Tiffany in the Brooklyn Museum. Several other painters, such as Samuel Coleman and Frederich Edwin Church, have visited Egypt or near East. But American painters tended to treat the subject as an alternative choice of landscape with some exotic settings. In the current exhibition “In Pursuit of the Exotic: Artists Abroad in 19th Century Egypt and the Holy Land” at Lubin House, the archeological and architectural merits of Egypt play an important role in the paintings by European artists like Charles Théodore Frère.
- Louis Haghe after David Roberts, Dayr el Medeeneh, Thebes, from The Holy Land: Egypt and Nubia, 1846-50
It must be wonderful to be a 19th century artist exploring the archeological sites before the amateur and professional treasure hunters made their permanent marks. Archeological study , as Gay Robins, in her book “Women in Ancient Egypt” says, is “essentially a destructive pursuit”. Thus whatever has been excavated and peeled off before would be impossible to be restored. Furthermore, the vivid colors on the reliefs or paintings, which had survived for two or three millenniums, could not fight against the touch of human hands. Thus the lithograph pictures from the watercolor rendering by David Roberts show the marvelous temples with authenticity in their “pristine” conditions.
- Trajan’s Kiosk at Philae (New site after the construction of Aswan Dam) from Wiki Commons
I was attracted by a pair of pictures of the same subject: the Kiosk of Trajan at Philae. One is a heliogravure picture printed and published by Cosmos. The other is an oil painting by Hermann David Salomon Corrodi. The contract between the austere temple and the barren land near the first cataract must be the reason that has attacted so many visitors. The campfire in the image is echoed by the burning sky, not only revealing the precise location of the viewer’s position, but also giving a romantic Victorian taste of Egypt: boat, river, palm trees and colonnades, with Arabians dressing in native attires and garbs.
Charles Théodore Frère, Along the Nile at Gyzeh
My favorite painting in the exhibition is “Along the Nile at Gyzeh” by Charles Théodore Frère. The reflection of pyramids on the Nile river make the picture exotic for modern viewers who are used to link pyramids with deserts and camels. The light from the early stage of the sunset suffuses the background with a golden touch. The pyramids are simplified into geometric shapes, yet still dominating the background landscape by breaking the horizon and river banks. I love how he broke the exact symmetry of the reflection by arranging a riverbank lined with ibis in the middle of the reflection.
The near ground was treated much darker, but with details in water buffalo and palm trees. The lack of colors in the upswing trees helps to diminish the dominant psychological feels of the bright pyramids as if nothing exotic or wonders could bend Frère’s mind of harmony and idyllism. In contract, in the last year’s exhibition at Montclair Museum of Art, Philip Pearlstein used the wide angle to exaggerate the proportion of the sphinx. To some extent, His peculiar depiction of the stone sculpture by diminishing the Great Pyramid is no different from his choice of cropped, twisted human body.
The Great Sphinx, Giza by Philip Pearlstein 1979
In Pursuit of the Exotic: Artists Abroad in 19th Century Egypt and the Holy Land is on view at Lubin House of the Syracuse University Art Galleries till the end of April. The Museum has limited hours, Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
A good book to read about the subject: American Orientalists by Gerald M. Ackerma published by Art Creation Realisation in 1994.
Egypt and the Holy Land With 19th Century Art — New Exhibition at Lubin House
Although the Dahesh Museum of Art closed its door in 2007, its collection of academic 19th century artwork is currently a traveling exhibit. Recently, they formed a partnership with Syracuse University Art Galleries.
From March 24 to April 30, 2009, a focused selection of the museum’s finest works will be featured in the exhibition In Pursuit of the Exotic: Artists Abroad in 19th Century Egypt and the Holy Land. Curated by David Farmer, the exhibition explores how artists in that era depicted their expanding world. The most exotic destinations for Europeans at that time were Egypt and the Holy Land, which, for centuries, had been difficult to reach. Egypt offered a mysterious culture and a monumental environment, while the Holy Land combined a historical, religious connection with European tradition and an extraordinary visual “otherness.”
The Museum has limited hours, Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. until 4 p.m.
Note: Images courtesy the Dahesh Museum of Art from the press ready image package.
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