Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849–1903). <em>The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India</em>, ca. 1885. Oil on canvas, 31 5/16 x 25 1/2 in. (79.6 x 64.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 15.300 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.300_SL1.jpg)

Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849–1903). The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India, ca. 1885. Oil on canvas, 31 5/16 x 25 1/2 in. (79.6 x 64.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 15.300 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.300_SL1.jpg)

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Looks like a photo. Was this the intent in the way it's painted?

This also looks like a photo. Was this the intent in the way it's painted?

For a work like the first one you shared, the scene in Delhi, the artist was giving his American viewers an opportunity to "see" a place that was very distant and different from their own world, so the amount of detail would have pleased them.

Look at the tiles on that mosque, for example! Weeks took many photographs during his travels to records architectural details and landscapes. He also wrote and illustrated a book on his travels, "From the Black Sea through Persia and India," published in 1896.

For both works, this degree of detail and fidelity to what the artist observed (always allowing for artistic likeness -- artists always choose what to show us!) demonstrated the artist's training and skill.

However, European and American art from just a decade or so later shows that priorities were shifting -- artists became less concerned with accurate representation of the world, and more interested in experimenting with color and form, or with showing their own inner visions.

What can you tell me about this painting, it's amazing.

You may have garnered this from the label, but with pieces like this American artists were trying to give American viewers an opportunity to "see" a place that was distant from them and different from their own world view/world experiences.

The degree of detail in this painting and fidelity to what the artist observed on his travels (always allowing for artistic likeness, artists always choose what to show us) demonstrated the artist's training and skill.

I had a question about the red spindle thing in the background, does anyone know what that was used for?

It's described as a wooden spinning frame. The older man, in the white turban, must have just been using it to spin thread or yarn from fibers (like cotton).

Can you tell me about this?

The artist likely relied heavily on photographic documentation to create this extremely detailed and accurate work.

Even the tiles on the mosque on the background are extremely detailed and accurate. With works like these, American artists were trying to give viewers an opportunity to see a distant place that was different from their own world---in this case, India.

Where is this?

This scene is styled after something Weeks saw on his travels to India, a mosque outside the city of Delhi. This was painted around 1885, Weeks had been to India a few years earlier. This piece fits into the Orientalist style popular during the 19th century.

The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India

Edwin Lord Weeks

American Art

The American expatriate Edwin Lord Weeks, like many nineteenth-century European artists, was known for his “exotic” North African and Middle Eastern subjects. However, he also undertook paintings based on three extended visits to India (in 1882, 1886, and 1892). In these works, Weeks’s talent for the dynamic transcription of brilliant light and color allowed him to represent foreign subjects in a picturesque way that appealed to Western audiences. Here, he offered the colorful, if weathered, tiled facade of a mosque as a diverting counterpoint to the subject of two armed men in conversation with an old man in a dhoti (a traditional Indian garment).

ARTIST Edwin Lord Weeks, American, 1849–1903

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES ca. 1885

DIMENSIONS 31 5/16 x 25 1/2 in. (79.6 x 64.8 cm) frame: 44 x 38 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (111.8 x 97.8 x 9.5 cm) (show scale)

SIGNATURE Unsigned

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 15.300

CREDIT LINE Gift of George D. Pratt

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849–1903). The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India, ca. 1885. Oil on canvas, 31 5/16 x 25 1/2 in. (79.6 x 64.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 15.300 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.300_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 15.300_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

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