Orientalists: Western Artists in Arabia, the Sahara, Persia and
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend From the Great Pyramids to the Taj Mahal, the Middle East and India have for centuries lured Westerners to travel and have inspired their architecture, literature, music and fashion. The Orientalists pursues the richest era of this fascination, the mid to late 19th century, when American and European artists traveled and painted throughout the Holy Land and India. The highly cinematic images they created… Product details and pricing info |
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26 Customer Reviews Posted
- Should Become a Classic in the Field
- This scholarly and highly readable book is of importance to art historians, historians, and anyone with a serious interest in orientalism as both an art movement and a western cultural phenomenom. The illustrations are superb,and the additional profile articles on key orientalists (such as Richard F. Burton) are an added bonus. This book is certainly worth more than its price and will be of lasting value to future readers.
- 2008-02-17, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Outstanding volume with many rarely seen images
- An outstanding volume providing high quality images and interesting commentary. Too many art books commit the sin of spreading large images over two pages so the picture gets lost in the spine - not this one. Orientalist paintings are crammed with detail to show the erudition of the artists and their patrons: for once you can see plenty, and you're not sold short by the layout or the print quality. Not a book if you're looking for lush pictures of harem lovelies, one of the aspects of orientalism not given such high prominence here. Over all impression? The many different effects created by light in Middle Eastern landscapes, and the skill of these artists in capturing it
- 2008-01-16, 2 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Brilliant reference
- Brilliant book completely covering the subject, solid research, perfect rare illustrations. Lots of forgotten and difficult to find names. Very useful and highly recommended - worth every penny!
- 2007-06-12, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- A "coffee table book" you'll actually start reading!
- "coffee table" art books are usually just vehicles to display reproductions of the paintings. Not here - Davie's writing would make compelling reading if it was published in regular book format. He mainly focuses on orientalist painting itself - and shatters the critics - but he also has a fascinating section on four famous 'orientalists' which include Richard Burton and Lady Digby.
The reproductions are are splendid very accurate ( i have the pleasure of having easy access to some of the original paintings) and capture the exquisite craft of "Orientalist" painters. often with close ups of parts of painting that allow the reader to see the elaborate detail.
Worth every penny. I find myself reading it again and again. - 2007-04-26, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Not enough women !
- Really I'd like to give this 5 stars but for the lack of women it's 4. I feel sort of silly doing so because the art is astonishing and the sheer beauty just magnifies how "art" has changed. I wonder if any artist alive today could come close to duplicating these masterpieces. I doubt it. And Mr Davies writing blends with the terrain and subject matter splendidly.
- 2007-04-19, 3 of 6 people found this review helpful, Rated:
