Scene of three ladies with musical instruments and a male servant with tray. Framed.
pictures (two-dimensional representations)
engraving (printing process)
paper (fiber product)
Picture
Picture
This nineteenth-century hand-colored engraving depicts an outdoor scene with three ladies playing musical instruments accompanied by a male servant. The work exemplifies the European and North American artistic style known as Orientalism. Nineteenth-century Orientalism was the Non-Eastern artistic portrayal of Middle Eastern and Asian cultures and peoples from an exoticized, romanticized, and often demeaning perspective. Popular at the time, this style portrayed exaggerated and stereotyped conceptions of Middle Eastern and Asian subjects.
In this engraving, three women wear a mix of European and Ottoman Turkish inspired dress from the early nineteenth century. Two of the women carry European gowns from the 1820-30s, with leg o' mutton sleeves. The woman on the middle wears a robe with looser sleeves associated with Ottoman women's fashions and a pair of salvar (trousers). The male figure is dressed in the typical costume for servants in the Ottoman Empire-a turban, coat, and striped robe. While imaginary, the scene reflects period Western European and North American perspectives on Turkish culture.
The women play an unlikely combination of instruments that would not have been used together in Ottoman musical ensembles. The kös (timpani drums) held by the woman on the left were used in Ottoman military bands called mehter. The middle woman holds a Turkish crescent, also seen in the Ottoman processional bands. Though probably not representing an actual Turkish instrument, the vertically held stringed instrument on the right projects Western notions of "exotic" Asian music. Its playing position across the lap would strike European audiences as suitably "Oriental." In truth, these instruments were never played together in Ottoman tradition. The (likely) European painter took artistic license in mixing and matching Turkish motifs, which was common in Orientalist art.
The juxtaposition of women in European / North American and Turkish colorful dresses, attended by a Turkish servant, underscores period attitudes from outsiders viewing Asian and Middle Eastern cultures as not just different, but inferior. Additionally, nineteenth-century European artists often used visual cues like palm trees and lush vegetation, together with figures in traditional Eastern attire, to convey an "Oriental" atmosphere. This approach was more about capturing an imagined perception of the East rather than a realistic or accurate portrayal of Eastern societies.
The presence of this Orientalist watercolor in the small, solitary office space offers some insight into why Sleeper may have chosen to display it there. Given the room's intimate nature and practical purpose for reading, writing, and managing household affairs, the artwork's positioning above the single writing desk suggests it may have served as a decorative focal point for the space's lone occupant.
The similar small proportions of the two other nearby watercolors - the exterior gazebo scene with two women crying and two men embracing; and the four women in ceremonial dress with a large drum - indicate themes of far-away and imaginary places and people, behaving differently from the Western nineteenth-century strict conventions. Sleeper seems to have deliberately curated this selection of small visual vignettes to stimulate thought or creativity within the office's confines. The fact that all three could be viewed while seated at the desk shows an intentionality to inspire whoever was working solitary in the tiny room.
Original to Beauport, Sleeper-McCann House (Gloucester, Mass.),
Unknown
7 3/4 x 9 1/2 x 1 1/8 (HxWxD) (inches)
Gift of Constance McCann Betts, Helena Woolworth Guest and Frasier W. McCann
1942.2681
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