Reproductie van een schilderij van twee ruiters te paard en twee begeleiders door Eugène Alexis Girardet 1884

This photogravure reproduces Eugène Alexis Girardet’s painting of two riders on horseback accompanied by two figures on foot. Girardet, a 19th-century French Orientalist painter, frequently depicted scenes of North Africa and the Middle East. Orientalism offered European artists a space to project colonial power fantasies onto foreign lands. The subjects of these works were often depicted as exotic, passive, or subservient, thus justifying the imperialistic ventures of the West. This image is titled 'Triste Journée' or 'Sad Day', and the subdued tones and weary figures evoke a sense of melancholy. The clothing of the figures on horseback suggests wealth, and the two figures on foot could be interpreted as their servants or guides. What narratives are being left out of this picture? Whose stories are not being told, and how does this image contribute to a potentially skewed perception of an entire region and its peoples? The emotional weight of the artwork invites us to reflect on the human cost of such power dynamics.