after NAPOLEON had invaded egypt with his army in 1798 and was driven out by the british after one year, a lot of artists followed, writers and painters – to become well known as the ORIENTALISTS. the movement lasted about a century and many of them were pretty famous. some of the painters specialized in landscapes, archeology or in people, others in biblical or historical themes. but one thing they all had in common – the experience changed their lives, the journey affected these artists deeply.
I was introduced to the ORIENTALIST-painters when I worked on disney’s ALADDIN and was searching for reference of the middle east. following is a small selection of watercolors from four wellknown painters – CHARLES ROBERTSON, 1844-1891, cairo – WILLIAM WYLD, 1806-1889, algier harbour – AUGUSTUS OSBORNE LAMPLOUGH, 1877-1930, nile – CARL HAAG, 1820-1915, cairo.
the next post will be about the tales from this area.
my name is hans bacher, – I work as production designer in the animation film industry. for the last 40 years I lived and worked in duesseldorf, london, paris, los angeles, manila and tokyo. now I am professor for film-design at the nanyang techn. university in singapore.
Those are really wonderful imagery!
The Orientalists (Kristian Davies) is a fantastic book for this. I bought a copy a few years back (at the Met in NYC) and it’s one of my favorite art books. Unfortunately, it seems like it’s hard to find now.
from hans -
there are several good books out, most of them in french. LES ORIENTALISTES PEINTRES VOYAGEURS, lynne thornton, 1983, ISBN 2 86770-002-7 and LA FEMME DANS LA PEINTURE ORIENTALISTE, lynne thornton, 1989, ISBN 2-86770-011-6 – both edition courbevoie, paris.
These are Great!!!
Thanks for refreshment:)
The piece second from the bottom or third from the top has awesome color contrasts going on. I had too look at the scene for a long time, something seems unreal about it. But like an unreal place a person would like to live in.
The faces on the people in the bottom picture look the least generalized to me(the closer to the bottom of the picture they are).
These are stunning Hans, love your new style pieces below also.
Happy (belated) 2011!