This exhibition presents a survey of European Orientalist art during the long 19th century (1798-1914). Desert landscapes enduring the heat of the sun, female silhouettes, shown either very discreetly or, on the contrary, in all their sensuality, craftsmen surrounded by an abundance of colours and textures… A broad variety of themes invites visitors on a journey through exotic worlds where fantasy and reality meet. Orientalist paintings, drawings and sculptures were fostered by increased mobility, by contemporary scientific views, by political interests and by a sense of romanticism. All these elements indicate how the West perceived the eastern world.
