Seeing Is Believing

Critical, contemporary approaches to Gérôme's Orientalist, fetishizing paintings, once revered in the 19th century

In the 19th century, the art of French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) offered European audiences an apparently realistic and intimate view of local life in the Middle East, North Africa and the Ottoman Empire. As the 20th-century art world embraced other styles, these same qualities marked Gérôme's art as antimodern and entirely forgettable. The tide turned in 1978, when Gérôme's scintillating painting of a young, unclothed Arab snake charmer appeared on the cover of Edward Said's Orientalism. This reintroduced the artist's name to the public but also served to negatively politicize Gérôme's representations along the lines of Said's argument. The paintings and drawings by Gérôme featured in this exquisite volume, in addition to examinations of his biography, influences and historical context, present Gérôme as a product of his time, a stylistic pioneer and something of a riddle waiting to be solved.