Dimensions: support: 495 x 337 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have Sir David Wilkie's "Mrs Elizabeth Young in Eastern Costume." It's undated, but something about the soft washes and the subject's faraway gaze gives it this air of romantic longing. What do you make of it? Curator: It whispers tales of orientalism, doesn't it? The "Eastern Costume" isn't just clothing; it's a projection. Wilkie, through Mrs. Young, is staging a fantasy, a dream of otherness. Do you feel the texture he evokes in the fabric, almost like poetry spun into thread? Editor: Absolutely! It's almost like she's playing a part. I wonder what Mrs. Young thought about being painted this way? Curator: A delicious question! Perhaps she reveled in the exoticism, or perhaps she felt... confined by it? Food for thought, indeed! Editor: This has completely changed how I see the piece. Thanks! Curator: The pleasure's all mine. Art is a conversation, isn't it?
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/wilkie-mrs-elizabeth-young-in-eastern-costume-n01727
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Wilkie was one of the first artists to travel to Jerusalem after the establishment of the British Consulate there in 1839. Already a celebrated painter, he travelled to the Near East to make studies for a future project of biblical subjects. This was never realised as he died on the journey home.This watercolour was painted in Jerusalem. Fair-skinned women dressed in Near Eastern costume often in a harem setting, are a recurring image in ‘Orientalist’ paintings. Such works underline western perceptions of eastern culture as sensuous and exotic. Many fashionable European ladies posed for similar portraits. Gallery label, May 2007
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