Portico Of A Mosque, Ahmedabad 

Edwin Lord Weeks painted this oil on canvas depicting the Portico of a Mosque in Ahmedabad. Weeks was an American artist who traveled extensively in the Middle East and India in the late 19th century. Here, Weeks captures a slice of life in colonial India. The mosque, rendered with careful attention to its architectural details, forms the backdrop for a scene of men in traditional clothing, gathered in conversation. The artist's focus is on capturing the exoticism of the East. Weeks’s paintings were exhibited at institutions that helped shape cultural perceptions of non-Western societies. To truly understand this painting, one needs to look into the history of Orientalism in Western art, the biographies and travel writings of artists like Weeks, and the complex relationship between the West and the East during the age of imperialism. These resources help us understand the social conditions in which Weeks produced this image.