| At the same time that French impressionist painters were freely interpreting
their modern world, artists such as Regnault were creating imaginative views
of Islamic history and society that fed a European and American interest in the
exoticism of the Near East. Often expecting to find a politically and morally
decadent culture given to capricious violence and sexual excess, orientalist
painters and writers traveled to Turkey, Egypt, and North Africa along paths
cleared by adventurers and European colonialism. . . .
- Suzanne E. May, formerly research assistant
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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