A Turkish Bath (Aubry de La Mottraye's "Travels throughout Europe, Asia and into Part of Africa...," London, 1724, vol. I, pl. 10) 1723 - 1724

William Hogarth made this print entitled, "A Turkish Bath," in London in 1724, as an illustration for Aubry de La Mottraye's travelogue. Depicting a scene of leisure and hygiene, the image is laden with the cultural assumptions of its time. Engravings like this one played a crucial role in shaping European understandings of the Ottoman world. Consider the architecture, with its domed ceiling and small apertures for light, alongside the figures themselves, one light-skinned and reclining, the other darker, and attending. How do these visual elements speak to contemporary ideas about "East" and "West?" What does it mean to show the intimate, gendered space of the bath to a public audience? How do ideas about class come into play? By exploring travel literature, visual culture, and social history we can better understand the complex interplay between observation, representation, and cultural exchange in the 18th century.