New to me

[james_davis_nicoll]

This is a painting by Édouard Frédéric Wilhelm Richter, who I had never heard of. As well, it's an example of "orientalist" painting, which I had also never heard of. Seems to be depictions of the east (starting at the middle east), as imagined by a painter whose online bio does not mention having ever visited the east.

Some interesting detail work in the expanded version.

Comments

[elusis]

See also the manias for "japanned" cabinetry and other wood articles, and the tropes of the Geisha, the silent and pliable Chinese girl, the harem, etc. etc.

[philrm]

Yes, and the whole chinoiserie thing, which originally started in the mid- to late-17th century and reached its first peak in popularity around the mid-18th century; the late 19th-early 20th-century version was a conscious revival.