Hello Fellow MCG'ers! Today I'll be talking about the marvellous tour MCG took of the special exhibition called Orientalist Paintings: Mirror or Mirage? at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia.  There were 20 members and one guest in attendance on Wednesday, August 23rd.  We started our tour at 10:30 am with our special docent Nasir (call him Jay).

For a little background on the exhibition: it was opened on June 2, inaugurated by Malaysia's Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Kuala Lumpur's Mayor Datuk Kamarulzaman Mat Salleh, and the founder of Albukhary Foundation and creator of the museum, Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.  Sotheby's Senior Specialist in 19th Century Continental Pictures, Claude Piening, was on hand to conduct the special tour for this illustrious group, and he breathlessly reported on the importance, extraordinary value, and one-of-a-kindness of so many of the pieces in the exhibition.

We began in Special Gallery 2 upstairs where Jay started the tour by telling us that the museum is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.  The museum consists of twelve thousand artifacts of which eight thousand are exhibited in 12 galleries.  

The exhibition encompasses 100 paintings; the three hundred acquired by the museum, as well as artifacts that complement the paintings in situ.

I have shown the paintings without their extraordinary frames, each of which was designed by the respective artists to enhance the paintings…which they did.  My photography abilities being as they are, the frames did not always show well in my photos.

The first painting that met us as we entered the first gallery was jaw-dropping, the 1788 portrait of an Indian Ambassador from Mysore named Muhammed Dervish Khan by the French artist Élisabeth Vigée- Lebrun, (a very impressive cv when I googled her).

Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Portrait of Muhammen Dervis Khan, 1788

Every painting we encountered was more spectacular than the one before.  Jay was masterful at explaining each painting and giving vignettes to accompany each one.  It made the paintings even more memorable.

One thing to note is that most of the painters and portraitists are French, German, Austrian, Swiss, and Italian, amongst other European countries, as well as American.  There is one famous Orientalist painter from Turkey, Osman Hamdi Bey, who painted in the French style.  His painting, Young Woman Reading, 1880, is a featured work in the exhibition.

Osman Hamdi Bey, Young Woman Reading, 1880

We viewed an entire section of portraits of notables of the time, including a portrait of Suleiman the Magnificent from the library of the Scottish Earl of Lothian.  

Sulieman the Magnificen

I consider the portrait of Crown Prince Abbas Mirza of Persia in partial Western garb to be a bit whimsical, although I'm sure the Crown Prince did not intend it to be interpreted that way.  The portrait is by an anonymous artist who made his presence known in the painting in the lower left corner as a soldier (enlargement is at right).

Crown Prince Abbas Mirza of Persia

Enlargement of artist as soldier at right

Rather than provide a laundry list of each painting and what was so wonderful about each one (and I do have that laundry list), I'll tell you about a few that I consider so spectacular and vivid that they jump out of their frames; frames, which, were designed by the artists to enhance the paintings.

One of the most famous paintings in the show, and one of the earlier paintings in the upstairs galleries that we visited, is Jean-Léon Géróme's Rider's Crossing the Desert, 1870.

Jean-Léon Géróme, Rider's Crossing the Desert, 1870

Besides being a spectacular painting, it also set the world record price for the artist at auction.

Another work that I found intriguing is by the French artist Henriette Brown, entitled A Visit: A Harem Interior, of a Turkish harem, which she had visited in 1861.  As the accompanying description points out, no male artist would have been able to capture this scene.

Henriette Brown, A Visit: A Haren Interior

There was a painting which reminded me so much of Girl with a Pearl Earring.  It was entitled The Coffee Service by German artist Carl Haag, which displayed an Ottomon coffee service.

Carl Haag, The Coffee Service

I will make just one more mention in the upper gallery about the 'guard' paintings.  There were a few, and they were all just wonderful.  The one I include below had an actual wall hanging next to the painting, identical to the wall hanging in the painting.  (There were other paintings where this phenomenon was exhibited as well).  This painting, entitled The Guard, is by the Austrian artist Ludwig Deutsch from 1907.

Ludwig Deutcsch, THe Guard, 1907                                                        Wall Hanging Pskent, Uzbekistan

I will move on to the ground floor gallery, which includes paintings from The Maghreb, Egypt, Constantinople, The Holy Land, and India. After Jay's introduction to this second gallery, we wandered on our own.  On our tour we came to this gallery last, although it is the actual entrance of the exhibition.  A disclaimer that I visited the exhibition a second time (more on that below):  I feel that it might be best for those planning a visit to start with this ground floor gallery.  I'm afraid I didn't truly appreciate the works on this floor on my first visit.  It wasn't until I started fresh on the second visit that I was able to absorb what I was seeing.

The India section was a bit limited, and, as Jay had explained, this was the furthest area of the artists' domain; and these paintings did not always travel well.

Here is one of many wonderful paintings from the ground floor gallery entitled Mosques and Minarets in Cairo by German artist Friedrich Perlberg

Friedrich Perlberg, Mosques and Minarets in Cairo

On the Road to Jerusalem by Italian artist Hermann Corrodi is one of many beautiful paintings making up the Holy Land section of this gallery.

Hermann Corrodi, On the Road to Jerusalem

I'll conclude this gallery with a wonderful painting by American artist Edwin Lord Weeks, Before the Great Jami Masjid Mosque, Mathura, India

Edwin Lord Weeks, Before the Great Jami Masjid Mosque, Mathura, India

We met up again with Jay outside the ground floor gallery at 12:30 to offer him our thanks for such a well-done tour of this wonderful exhibition.

No doubt those who visited with me have their own favourites.  I have many other favourites, but if I included them all, we'd end up with a lengthy tome.

On a personal note, I have been a member of the Metropolitan Museum in New York for many years.  My habit has always been to visit an exhibition once with a friend, then return on my own to really study the paintings.  That's only for the truly worthwhile exhibitions.  This exhibition certainly fell into that category.  Between our group visit and this writing, I visited the exhibition a second time.  If possible, it was more memorable than the first visit.  I encourage anyone who missed the MCG tour to visit this exhibition on their own, and experience these wonderful paintings, before the exhibition ends on October 15.

Kathy Thompson Sept 10, 2023