Ephemera

Orientalist depictions of the Levant

These postcards / paintings served 2 purposes, those early tourists who went to Egypt and the broader Levant region and writing back showing a side of the ‘Orient’, they imagined, far from the very European looking major ports cities they actually saw, that didn’t fit the popular image. The second group would be those who didn’t actually go to the interior of the Levant, but perhaps did a cruise in the waters of the Mediterranean, and wished to convey their image of a romantized Arabia / North Africa. The depictions bely their prejudices of women being perceived as sensuous, mysterious and alluring, dressed up in outfits that were far from reality. They served a market for the Western and male dominated gaze, where the backdrops arches and minarets etc. set that romantic scene of folly. But there are others that have an ethnographic examination of the people and there are those that sit in between reality and make-belief.

The artwork of these postcards / paintings above done by Alberto Fabbi (Bologna 1858 - 1906). He studied painting and sculpture with Augusto Rivalta, at the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, where he would become a Professor in 1893. He exhibited at the ‘Società promotrice di belle arti’ (Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts) in Turin, and at the ‘Mostre di belle arti’ in Milan. In 1892, he was named a Knight in the Order of the Crown of Italy.

A supposed young ‘Moorish’ lady.