The Messenger 1879

Frederick Arthur Bridgman created "The Messenger," an oil on canvas, during a period when Orientalism captured the Western imagination. Bridgman, like many of his contemporaries, depicted scenes from the Middle East and North Africa, often through a lens that exoticized and romanticized these cultures. In "The Messenger," we see figures in what is presumed to be a domestic setting, richly adorned with fabrics and architectural details meant to evoke an oriental opulence. But the image is also about power dynamics. The messenger, presumably a person of color, delivers information to a seated, presumably wealthy man, reinforcing historical power structures between the East and West. Bridgman spent a decade in France studying under academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme. What we see in Bridgman’s painting isn't just an image, but a narrative shaped by Western fantasies and colonial perspectives. The work reflects the complex interplay between artistic representation, cultural appropriation, and the politics of looking.