Market Scene in an Imaginary Oriental Port
As centers of commercial and cultural exchange, seaports bring together people from distant and diverse places. Here, colorful figures dance amid an exotic port's marketplace, which is lined by tropical-looking trees and European-style homes. This scene does not depict a real location, but rather, a figment of the artist's imagination. It also reflects European fascination with the Orient in the 1700s.
In the painting's center, a man who appears to be Chinese dances and plays the bells, flanked by other, dark-skinned performers. Their figures cast long shadows across a flagstone plaza, mimicking the shapes of the garlands and swags draped on nearby trees and buildings. Veiled and turbaned vend ...
In the painting's center, a man who appears to be Chinese dances and plays the bells, flanked by other, dark-skinned performers. Their figures cast long shadows across a flagstone plaza, mimicking the shapes of the garlands and swags draped on nearby trees and buildings. Veiled and turbaned vend ...
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c. 1764
Oil on canvas
50.8 x 74.6cm
2003.20
Where you'll find this
Permanent collection