Introduction
The travelogue, as a genre, offers a first-hand account of a foreign land and its culture. A mediated account, it is inherently subjective, even though it may claim a certain level of accuracy. A Second Journey Through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, Between the Years 1810 and 1816, written by the diplomat and writer James Justinian Morier (c. 1780-1849) and published in 1818, following the success of his first travelogue published in 1812, is a particularly rich case study from an art historical standpoint, as the majority of the illustrations appearing in the volume are based on sketches that Morier drew himself as he traveled through the Middle East. A wide range of subject matters is depicted, including figural activities, landscapes, and objects and costumes of the Middle East. These sketches are mainly ink drawings by pen. A search for connections between Morier’s travel sketches and sketchbooks, kept today at Balliol College at Oxford University, and the illustrations in A Second Journey yielded seven examples. This paper examines a selection of these sketches and their print versions in A Second Journey in relation to the Orientalist discourse that permeated nineteenth-century Britain. As Edward Said has argued in his seminal book Orientalism, first published in 1978, Orientalists conceived "the Orient," a term referring to the geographical region now known as the Middle East, as rooted in an unchanging past at odds with the ever-developing West. As such, the Orientalist framework relies on a dichotomy between the familiar (nous, us, the West) and the strange (les autres, others, the East).1
In her essay "The Imaginary Orient," Linda Nochlin has shown how Orientalist artists employed artistic tropes and visual language to authenticate "a supposed Oriental reality." These include the concealment of the artist's touch and the insistence on "a plethora of authenticating details."2
As she puts it, "as Barthes points out, the major function of gratuitous, accurate details like these is to announce 'we are the real.' They are signifiers of the category of the real, there to give credibility to the 'realness' of the work as a whole, to authenticate the total visual field as a simple, artless reflection -- in the case, of a supposed Oriental reality."3
Moreover, Nochlin argues that the function of "the picturesque" in Orientalist paintings is "to certify that the people encapsulated by it, defined by its presence, are irredeemably different from, more backward than, and culturally inferior to those who construct and consume the picturesque product,"4
which echoes Said's point on the Orientalist dichotomous system, "us" versus "others." Building on Nochlin's essay, this paper argues that the images illustrating A Second Journey, created by professional engravers on the basis of Morier's sketches, are reinterpreted through an Orientalist lens in order to fulfill the expectations of the Western readership. This manifests in the prints through two visual means: the subtle transformation of details, and the added color.
This paper is divided into three sections. The first part consists of visual analyses, where Morier's original sketches are compared with the prints illustrating A Second Journey. Building on Henri Zerner and Charles Rosen’s chapter on the Romantic vignette in Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth-Century Art (1984), the second section addresses this new printing technique, which is employed in Morier’s 1818 travelogue.5
Finally, the paper looks at the engravers and publisher responsible for A Second Journey.
Visual Comparisons of Sketches and Prints
It should be noted that Morier was an amateur draftsman, not a professional engraver. Therefore, the engravers who worked after his sketches were expected, as professional artists, to perfect his compositions for the publication. Nevertheless, the use of color in some of the prints appearing in A Second Journey -- an innovation in comparison to the prints appearing in Morier's first travelogue, which are all in black and white -- does more than refine the original sketches, as it also reinforces the Orientalist dimension of the images. A comparison of the color print entitled “A Persian Breakfast,” displayed in the exhibition (Fig. 1), with the original drawing by Morier (Fig. 2) is a case in point. The scene depicts five male figures sitting on a carpet enjoying breakfast, while a servant, standing on the left, is holding a tray and a plate. The color print includes details that are not visible on the original drawing, including patterns on the carpet and the drapery hanging on the right, as well as on the colored glass window, made of yellow, purple, and blue panes. The sitters’ dress, which is reminiscent of the Qajar clothing worn by Morier in the portrait displayed in the exhibition, especially the kolah hat, is more compelling in the print because of the added color. These transformations not only make the print more eye-catching, but also add a stronger Persian "flavor" to it. This must have appealed to the Western audience, eager for visual details that could be read as guarantees of the authenticity of the representation. As Linda Nochlin put it, the carefully executed details such as the drapery pattern and color-stained glass heighten the effect of "a supposed Oriental reality."6
The picturesque alterations are also visible in the printed version of “Persian Musicians” (Fig. 3), in comparison with Morier's original drawing from his sketchbook (Fig. 4). The added background of successive hills and clouds, as well as the sand and grass in the foreground, contextualize the scene more. Furthermore, the printed version is endowed with a certain caricature-like quality, visible in the musicians' exaggerated and stylized (i.e., non-individualized) facial features. This emphasizes the divide between Persians and Westerners, by generalizing the former.
The vignette entitled “Copy of a Painting at Asterabad" (Fig. 5), today known as Gorgan in northern Iran, is also based on an original drawing by Morier (Fig. 6). As Morier noted in the travelogue text, his drawing is based on an image of a woman playing an instrument. Slight modifications from Morier's drawing are noticeable in the vignette, which was engraved by T. Fielding: the contour of the woman’s chin is slightly altered from a sharp angle to a more rounded shape, while the position of the eyeball shifts from the left to the center of the eye. This accentuates the woman's femininity, as she appears more gentle and less harsh. In light of Nochlin's remarks on the Orientalist visual language, the reinterpretation here underscores the sexualization of the female model, which is not unusual in Orientalist paintings.
Morier and the Romantic Vignette
As Henri Zerner and Charles Rosen have observed in their essay on the Romantic vignette, book illustrations in the eighteenth century were usually copper engravings with a visible plate mark. In addition, the illustrations would appear in a separate section from the text. By contrast, “the immediate aim [of the Romantic vignette] was to create a more intimate association between images and typography, printing them together again, and to increase the graphic unity of the book.”7
Zerner and Rosen have also pointed to the vanishing edges of the illustration as a key component of the vignette, concluding that “the vignette is not a window because it has no limit, no frame. The image, defined from its center rather than its edges, emerges from the paper as an apparition or a fantasy.”8
Some vignettes appearing in Morier’s Second Journey feature a fading frame, thus allowing an overlap between the real and the imaginary. For example, in “Persians Sleeping on the House-Top,” T. Fielding turned the original pencil sketch (Fig. 7) into a vignette (Fig. 8) by adding an irregular cloud-shape contour completed with shading. At the same time, in the vignette, the building located in the middle ground is depicted with a more refined spatial perspective, while the column in the background and the figures sleeping on the other house-top are more readily recognizable. These elements, combined with the contrast between light and shadow, add a certain "reality effect"9
to the vignette despite the sense of vision generated by the fading frame surrounding the image. As such, the modifications in the vignette instill more credibility to the authenticity of the scene. The organic combination of text and illustration, facilitated by the vignette, not only simplified the printing process, but also fulfilled the expectations of A Second Journey's readers, in bringing closer to them the exoticism of the written and visual narratives through an allegedly objective language.
The Engravers and The Publisher
The choice of the color print leads us to the question of the engravers' identity. In Morier's first travelogue, the names of the engravers were left out, and only the name of the publisher, “Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,” is indicated. By contrast, the names of two British engravers -- T. Fielding and H. Alken -- appear at the bottom of the prints that illustrate A Second Journey.
Previous scholarship has identified "H. Alken” as Henry Thomas Alken (1785 – 1851), a British painter and engraver most famous for his caricatures and sporting scenes.10
Based on research of works belonging to the British Museum, "T. Fielding" can be identified as Theodore Henry Adolphus Fielding (1781-1851), a British painter, engraver, and author of books on painting theory and practice, including Index of Colours and Mixed Tints (1830), On the Theory of Painting (1836), and The Art of Engraving, with the various Modes of Operation (1844). Fielding’s earlier watercolor works were displayed at the Royal Academy and other British exhibition venues. It is worth noting that Fielding was appointed teacher of drawing and perspective at the East India Company's Military College at Addiscombe in 1826, the trading company that was notorious for its harsh exploitation of trade with India, East Asia, and Southeast Asia. Fielding resided at Croydon until his death in July 1851.11
The publisher of A Second Journey is “Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown,” also known as “Longman.” A British publisher of books and prints, the other names besides "Longman" reflect successive partnerships.12
Researching other travelogues published by Longman, it is not surprising to find that the engraver Fielding was involved in at least two of them, including A Journey from India to England, through Persia, Georgia, Russia, Poland, and Prussia, in the Year 1817, written by Lt. Col. John Johnson and published in May 1818; and A Voyage Up the Persian Gulf and a Journey Overland from India to England, in 1817. Containing notices of Arabia Felix, Arabia Deserta, Persia, Mesopotamia, the Garden of Eden, Babylon, Bagdad, Koordistan, Armenia, Asia Minor, &c. &c, written by William Heude and published in 1819. Similar to the creative process characterizing A Second Journey, the illustrations appearing in A Journey from India to England were made by Theodore Henry Adolphus Fielding after original drawings by John Johnson. These different travelogues indicate the existence of a market for this type of publication in early nineteenth-century Britain. Furthermore, the repeated collaboration between a publisher and an engraver for travelogues suggests a level of specialization in the engraving profession.
Conclusion
Morier's travelogues raise questions about the relationship between the author's original sketches and the printed illustrations; the printing technique and related visual effects of the vignette; and the collaboration between publisher and engravers in early nineteenth-century Britain. The illustrations in A Second Journey, in comparison with the original sketches produced by Morier during his travels, show a greater affinity with Orientalist imagery. The more pronounced illusionism and the addition of details, combined with the use of the vignette, contributed to create images that invoked authenticity, while at the same time fulfilling the Western reader's desire for a distant and fantastical Orient.
Morier recorded his observations through sketches based on his subjective experience. In contrast, the engravers were responsible for injecting a dose of Orientalism in the final printed illustrations. The subtle additions of details and colors in the prints contributed to the creation of a supposed Oriental reality. Morier's original drawings, which were based on his first-hand observations, may be seen as more authentic and less Orientalist than the prints that appeared in the travelogues.
- 1Edward W. Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1979).
- 2Linda Nochlin. “The Imaginary Orient,” In The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), 38.
- 3Nochlin. “The Imaginary Orient,” 38.
- 4Nochlin. “The Imaginary Orient,” 51.
- 5See Henri Zerner and Charles Rosen, "The Romantic Vignette and Thomas Bewick." In Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth Century Art (New York: Viking,1984), 74-75.
- 6Nochlin. “The Imaginary Orient,” 38 .
- 7Zerner and Rosen, "The Romantic Vignette and Thomas Bewick," 81.
- 8Zerner and Rosen, "The Romantic Vignette and Thomas Bewick," 81.
- 9Roland Barthes, "L'Effet de Réel," in Littérature et réalité. (1982). 81-90.
- 10Ronald Vere Tooley. "English books with coloured plates, 1790 to 1860." In A Bibliographical Account of the most Important Books Illustrated by English Artists in Colour Aquatint and Colour Lithography. London: Batsford 21987 (1954), 55.
- 11Huon Mallalieu. "Fielding, Theodore Henry Adolphus (1781–1851)." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.) (Oxford University Press, 2004).
- 12Asa Briggs, Essays in the History of Publishing in Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the House of Longman, 1724-1974 (Addison-Wesley Longman Ltd, 1974).