Portret van mevrouw Stuart 1749 - 1813

Valentine Green created this mezzotint portrait of Mrs. Stuart in eighteenth-century Britain. It encapsulates the cultural fascination with the ‘Orient’ that was fashionable at the time. The turban and the draped fabric, while ostensibly Middle Eastern, are highly stylized, filtered through a European lens. This aesthetic blended fantasy with the realities of expanding British trade and colonial power. It’s interesting to consider how Mrs. Stuart, likely a member of the British elite, used these visual cues to signal her own status and worldliness. Prints like these circulated widely, shaping perceptions and attitudes about other cultures. They also reinforced existing social hierarchies. To fully understand this work, we might explore the printmaking industry of the time and consult shipping records to find out more about the textiles that were being imported and traded. Only through this can the meaning of the artwork become clear, as something contingent on social and institutional context.