NEW – Orientalist Paris: Colonialism and Fantasy in nineteenth- to twentieth-century Art
Dr Emily Christensen and Dr Ambra D’Antone
Friday 12 – Sunday 14 September 2025
£495
Course description
Orientalist paintings are complex works with a contentious history: a popular genre in 19th– and early 20th-century Europe, and now in growing demand in the Islamic world, they have been variously described as historically significant snapshots of life in ‘the Orient’ and as ideologically constructed fantasies created in the minds and studios of the European artists who painted them.
This tour will take you to Paris, where so much Orientalist art was created, to explore the works in their artistic, political and historical context. We will see some of the most famous works of Orientalism, including Ingres’ La Grande Odalisque and Delacroix’s Women of Algiers at the Louvre Museum, and a selection produced in the later 19th century by artists like Gérome, Fromentin, Regnault and the intriguing Ottoman artist Osman Hamdi Bey at the Musée d’Orsay, interrogating them all to identify recurring motifs (horsemen, harems, odalisques, palm trees, alleyways, arches) and common themes (idleness, sensuality, violence). We will also visit Delacroix’s house museum to see some sketches and souvenirs from his trip to Algeria and Morocco. Depending on what is on display at the time, we will also trace Orientalism’s shifting forms and renewed purpose in early modernism at the Musée Picasso or at the Centre Pompidou, visit the unexpected and little-known colonial-themed murals at the Palais de la Porte Dorée or perhaps the Delacroix frescoes in the church of Saint Sulpice. Throughout, we aim to provide participants with a framework through which to approach and interpret these intriguing works.
How to book
To book your chosen course(s) please use the book now button below and you will be taken to our booking system where you can book and pay (Visa / Mastercard / GooglePay / ApplePay).
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Please note that in the EU new VAT rules for online courses are coming into effect. This means that from 1 January 2025 we will be required to charge EU participants their local VAT rate. VAT-inclusive prices for EU students will be displayed at check-out.
Please note that the minimum age for participation is 18. By booking you confirm that you are over 18.
If you have any questions please email us at short.courses@courtauld.ac.uk
Lecturers' biographies
Dr Emily Christensen is an Associate Lecturer at The Courtauld. Emily teaches European 19th – and 20th – century art, and on issues of empire and representation in Orientalism. Her own research has focused on Orientalism in the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, and she has published on these artists and related topics in The Burlington Magazine, World Art, Aesthetica Universalis and Manazir and has contributed exhibition catalogue essays for the Kunsthaus, Zurich (2023) and for Tate’s exhibition Expressionists (2024). In addition to her teaching and scholarship, Emily co-curated (with Dr Ambra D’Antone) an exhibition in The Courtauld Gallery Project Space entitled Drawing on Arabian Nights (2023), collaborated on the exhibition Re-Orientations: Europe and Islamic Art, from 1851 to Today at the Kunsthaus in Zürich (2023), and has co-curated the forthcoming exhibition in The Courtauld Gallery Project Space entitled With Graphic Intent (2025).
Dr Ambra D’Antone is a historian of modern art and art historiography, with a focus on Turkey, the Levant region and the Sixties. Ambra works as Curatorial Assistant at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Current projects include working on a book of Turkish art historiography between 1920–60. She has co-curated an exhibition in The Courtauld Gallery Project Space entitled Drawing on Arabian Nights (2023) with Dr Emily Christensen. Her work has been published in Art History and The Journal of Art Historiography.