ORIENTALIST ART

Napoleon I's campaigns in Egypt paved the way for a European fascination with the East that would span the entire 20th century. Born in the wake of Romanticism, the Orientalist literary and artistic movement accompanied the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and European colonization. This craze influenced all artistic currents of the century: Academic, Neoclassical (Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Dominique Ingres, or Théodore Chassériau), and Impressionist... It resulted in an exotic and picturesque aesthetic, blending styles, civilizations, and eras, where female sensuality was a favored subject. At the turn of the 20th century, under the influence of Naturalism and photography, the representation of the Orient evolved toward a more realistic vision, focusing on new subjects such as landscapes or daily life.