Women at the Fountain 

Frederick Arthur Bridgman painted these Women at the Fountain sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. In this oil on canvas, Bridgman depicts women in what was then called ‘the orient,’ North Africa, going about their daily lives. As historians, we note that Bridgman’s work fits into a larger pattern of European and American artists painting scenes of the ‘exotic east,’ often drawing on fantasy as much as observation. These images, which might seem harmless, participated in a cultural dynamic that reinforced Western ideas of superiority and justified colonial ventures. By looking at travel writing, popular literature, and even world’s fair exhibits of the time, we can get a clearer picture of the assumptions that shaped Bridgman’s vision. The image, then, becomes not just a pretty picture, but a window into the complex relationship between the West and the world it sought to dominate.