Skægget mandsportræt, set en face, med turban 1835 - 1836

Martinus Rørbye made this pencil drawing of a bearded man wearing a turban in the first half of the 19th century. It's a study of a face, likely drawn from life. The sitter's exotic headwear, however, speaks to the growth of Orientalism in European art of the period. Denmark, like other European nations, was expanding its economic and political reach. Artists like Rørbye, who studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, produced images that fueled public fascination with the cultures encountered in the East. But this is not an idealized depiction. The man's gaze is downcast, and the drawing's realism lacks any sense of European superiority. Did Rørbye intend a challenge to the prevailing social norms? Perhaps his travels gave him a different perspective to his contemporaries? Understanding this image requires us to research the visual codes of the time, as well as the economic structures that supported artistic production. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.