Portret van een Arabische koopman 1867 - 1880

This photograph, "Portret van een Arabische koopman," was made by G.R. Lambert & Co. This image presents an intriguing insight into 19th-century European perceptions of the ‘Orient’. The photograph creates meaning through various visual codes. The ‘Arabian merchant’ is carefully posed against a studio backdrop, leaning against a balustrade in what appears to be an approximation of European aristocratic portraiture. Consider how the trappings of orientalism - the robes, the headwear - might have shaped the viewer's understanding of this figure. It's important to ask questions about what the photographer and the institutions of art were hoping to achieve with such images. Were they striving for scientific accuracy, or contributing to a more generalized fantasy? These are the kind of questions that social historians of art seek to answer, using sources such as trade records, travel writing, and colonial archives.