Young oriental woman 

Jean-François Portaels, a 19th-century Belgian artist, painted this portrait in oil on canvas. The smooth and fluid application of paint is central to the work. The artist has blended the colors to create soft transitions between light and shadow, giving the woman's skin a luminous quality. Portaels paid close attention to the details of her garments and jewelry. Note the intricate patterns of the headdress, and the way light reflects off the metallic surfaces, and observe the folds and drapes of the fabrics to convey their texture. The artist's skillful handling of the oil paint, layering thin glazes to build up depth and richness, lends the painting a sense of realism. However, this realism also depends on a whole system of representation, through which people of other cultures are made available as images for consumption. It is this context, as much as Portaels’s skill, that determines the picture's meaning.