Velvet Jackets With Turbans.(The Arts)('The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting')

Byline: Ginanne Brownell

British artists have long been enamored of the Middle East.

THE BUSTLING SOUK IN THE PAINTING is filled with brightly colored fabrics and hanging carpets. A donkey, decorated in gold tassels, stands beside its owner, who is dressed in an orange and green turban and flowing red trousers, a rifle tucked into his sash. Bearded men cast curious glances in the direction of a bespectacled old man diligently surveying a coin. Two veiled women stare intently at the seraff, or money changer, who is settling a dispute between them and the man with the donkey, who appears skeptical that a Turkish coin can be used as legal tender in this 19th-century Cairo bazaar. But is this depiction-- from British artist John Frederick Lewis's "The Seraff--a Doubtful Coin" (1869), a proper interpretation of how Muslim women were called into question over their ability to transact business? Or is it impossible for a Westerner ever to fully understand the nuances of everyday life in the Middle East?

The excellent new exhibition "The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting," at London's Tate Britain (through Aug. 31), seeks to examine this philosophical question. The first exhibition to explore how British artists interpreted the Middle East from the 17th to the 20th centuries, "Lure" will travel on to Istanbul and the United Arab Emirates. It features more than 110 paintings, watercolors and sketches from collections around the globe, including several pieces like Lewis's "Afternoon Prayer" and Richard Beavis's "Pilgrims En Route to Mecca," which have rarely been seen in public. The eclectic array illustrates the broad swath of landscapes, portraiture and daily life depicted by British painters. "In Britain our imperial past has a polarizing affect, [so] people either feel that anything to do with it is evil or there is a sentimental view about how wonderful empire was," says Nicholas Tromans, the show's curator. "I felt there was an area where we could make an impact in terms of more nuanced imaginative thinking."

With the introduction of steam travel in the 19th century, exotic places like Constantinople (Istanbul), Cairo and Jerusalem were suddenly within easy reach and became part of the tourist trail. Travelers traipsed through Spain and down into North Africa or across Greece and Asia Minor, tracing the footsteps of Lord Byron. Thomas Phillips's portrait "George ...