Tender Moments 1875

Frederick Arthur Bridgman made this oil on canvas painting called Tender Moments. Bridgman was an American artist known for his Orientalist works, painting scenes from North Africa and the Middle East. In nineteenth-century Europe and America, there was a fascination with the “Orient”, the region of North Africa and the Middle East. This painting reflects that fascination. We see a woman, dressed in what Westerners would have considered “Oriental” clothing, seated on an elaborate couch with a young child. Such images provided European and American audiences with a vision of the exotic “other.” But what was the reality of life in these places? How did the people who actually lived in North Africa and the Middle East see themselves? These are the questions that historians of art seek to answer. By looking at archival materials, travel writing, and other historical sources, we can better understand the complicated dynamics of cultural exchange.