Late 19th-century Orientalist school.

Late 19th-century Orientalist school.
“North African Coast.”
Oil on panel.
With an illegible signature in the lower right corner.
Measurements: 22 x 15.5 cm; 40 x 34 cm (frame).

Orientalism emerged in the 19th century as a consequence of the Romantic spirit of escape through time and space. The early Orientalists sought to reflect what was lost, what was unattainable, in a dramatic journey doomed to failure from the outset. Like Flaubert in *Salambó*, the painters created meticulous portraits of imagined Easts and pasts, recreated down to the last detail yet ultimately unknown and idealized. During the second half of the 19th century, however, many of the painters who traveled to the Near East in search of that invented reality discovered a different and new country, one whose peculiarities stood out beyond the stereotypes and prejudices of Europeans. Thus, this new Orientalist school left behind the beautiful odalisques, harems, and slave markets to paint nothing but what they saw: the real Orient in all its everyday dimensions. Along with this shift in vision came a technical and formal change; since the goal is no longer to recreate an imagined world in every detail, the brushstrokes take on an Impressionist fluidity, and the artists focus not so much on depicting local characters and customs as on faithfully capturing the atmosphere of the place—the very identity of the North African people themselves.