John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) is one of the best-known yet least understood British Orientalist painters of the nineteenth century. His numerous, highly detailed Orientalist images stand in dramatic contrast to the meager written archive of the years he spent in Egypt between 1841 and 1851; art historians have long puzzled over the details of this significant period and struggled for meaningful insight into his process of artful construction.

This innovative book, the first critical monograph devoted to this acclaimed artist, draws on both newly uncovered historical data and imperial and post-colonial theory to propose a compelling new interpretation of Lewis’s paintings and biography. In addition to offering formal, historical, and theoretical examinations of Lewis’s highly nuanced subject matter, Weeks argues that Lewis crafted an ambiguous, cross-cultural identity that challenged viewers’ understanding of fact and fiction and, along with his pictures, subverted systems of patriarchal power in England and abroad.

*The eBook is available exclusively on the A&AePortal.*

Author

PublisherPaul Mellon Centre

Print publication date November 2014 (out of print)

Print ISBN 9780300208160

EISBN 9780300273458

Illustrations 111

Print Status out of print

Publisher (out of print)

WorldCat

Google Books

Base text size -

Chapter images ()