Arts Summary

“From June 12, 2026, to February 28, 2027, an exhibition at The Met will focus on cross-cultural encounters in Europe and the Middle East during a period of growing imperialism and colonialism. Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy will present works of art traditionally identified as Orientalist in conversation with objects from the Middle East, fostering a deeper understanding of the contexts of exchange between cultures, beginning with Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt in 1798 and culminating in an exploration of the French-trained Ottoman painter Osman Hamdi Bey (1842–1910). It will highlight the traditions of Islamic art and culture that transfixed our 19th-century forebears alongside European and American creations, exploring complex issues surrounding influence and cultural appropriation. The exhibition will be the first at The Met dedicated to Orientalism, and the first major collaboration between the Departments of European Paintings and Islamic Art.” — The Met

“During the 19th century, unprecedented cross-cultural encounters fueled the accelerated absorption and reinterpretation of ideas shared between peoples,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and CEO. “Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy focuses on how cultural difference was perceived, reckoned with, and represented during this period, breaking down conventional hierarchies between the visual and decorative arts to offer new perspectives on a multifaceted subject.”

Installation views of Orientalism: Between Fact and Fantasy, on view June 12, 2026–February 28, 2027 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Photos by Anna-Marie Kellen, Courtesy of The Met. 

Exhibition co-curator Asher Miller, Eugene V. Thaw Curator of European Paintings, said: “One of the most interesting aspects of this exhibition will be the new light it sheds on Gérôme’s Bashi-Bazouk, the life-size painting of an Ottoman mercenary long favored by Met visitors, by presenting it alongside exceptional artworks that reveal untold stories about Orientalist portraits, likenesses, and types—and the fluid boundaries between those categories.”

Exhibition co-curator Maryam Ekhtiar, Patti Cadby Birch Curator of Islamic Art, said, “In the 19th century, Persian art and culture held a mesmerizing sway over the imaginations of Europeans and Americans, including writers, translators, poets, artists, craftsmen, architects, designers, and even composers, who regarded Persia (present-day Iran) as an unmatched wellspring of creativity and refinement, inspiring a vast body of literature, visual art, and music. Visitors to the exhibition will learn that this tendency was so pervasive that many designers and manufacturers marketed their creations as ‘Persian,’ regardless of where they were actually made.”

Exhibition co-curator Deniz Beyazit, Curator of Islamic Art, said: “A critical component of the exhibition is balancing Western perspectives with those from the Islamic world. One of the true discoveries for most visitors to the exhibition will be the section on Osman Hamdi Bey, one of the 19th century’s most intriguing and complex figures. For the first time, a significant group of his rarely seen paintings will be displayed alongside those by Gérôme and other painters who were his contemporaries. Such novel juxtaposition will reveal that, more than any artist of the 19th century, Hamdi represented modern cosmopolitan life in the Ottoman Empire from an insider’s perspective. His pictures offer an eye-opening response to the exoticized and stereotyped portrayals of ‘the East’ created by generations of European Orientalist painters.”

Title image: Jean-Léon Gérôme (French, Vesoul 1824–1904 Paris). Bashi-Bazouk, 1868–69.  Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2008 (2008.547.1). Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Images courtesy The Metropolitan Museum of Art.