Tales from the Island of Serendip

4 4

Flex Mentallo · September 7, 2021

John Frederick Lewis

For me, Lewis was the greatest of the orientalists. He lived for several years in a traditional mansion in Cairo.

He influenced other artists, including Gerome. He never painted a nude, and his wife modeled for several of his harem scenes. These imagine "the harem as a place of almost English domesticity, ... [where]... women's fully clothed respectability suggests a moral healthiness to go with their natural good looks."

The detailing of walls, screens, clothes and flowers, the fall of filtered light on secluded spaces, the natural and relaxed poses of his figures, is far from the theatricality of Gerome and others, as if he were in the space, observing what he depicts, even though created years later in his studio back in England.

I am still searching for a good monograph on his work...