Three Oriental Heads 1770 - 1775

Editor: So, this is John Hamilton Mortimer’s "Three Oriental Heads," a pencil drawing from around 1770-1775. It's got this classical feel, but the figures are… well, almost comically intense. What do you make of it? Curator: Intensely comic is a brilliant starting point, I must say! To me, it feels like Mortimer is poking fun at the grand historical narratives so popular in Neoclassicism. These aren’t your idealized Roman heroes; they're wonderfully…off. Look at the one on the left, with that outrageous head of hair! Do you think it's just exaggeration, or something else? Editor: I think there’s definitely exaggeration, but maybe there's a little social commentary too? Were ideas about "the orient" a bit cartoonish in England at the time? Curator: Precisely! Think about what "oriental" meant then – a vast, exoticized, often misunderstood region. Mortimer, I suspect, is playing with those perceptions, inflating them. The roughness of the pencil sketch adds to the humor; it's almost anti-academic, isn't it? A rebellion sketched with a knowing wink. Editor: It's funny you mention the pencilwork because to me, it suggests that maybe Mortimer was experimenting. Could these “oriental heads” just be caricatures of types he encountered in England? Curator: Absolutely! It's a delicious thought, and knowing Mortimer's reputation for being a bit of a rebel, entirely plausible. They might very well be some “oriental heads” he saw in a tavern or during a public spectacle. And perhaps in that case, "oriental" has quotation marks? Editor: Wow, that gives me a lot to think about. I hadn't considered the humor as a commentary! Curator: It’s a gem, isn't it? Turns assumptions on their head, with a swift flick of the pencil, it does!