The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
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).
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) frame: 44 x 38 1/2 x 3 3/4 in. (111.8 x 97.8 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of George D. Pratt, 15.300. No known copyright restrictions (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 15.300_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
The Old Blue-Tiled Mosque, outside Delhi, India
Date
ca. 1885
Medium
Oil on canvas
Classification
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)
Signatures
Unsigned
Credit Line
Gift of George D. Pratt
Accession Number
15.300
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
This work may be in the public domain in the United States. Works created by United States and non-United States nationals published prior to 1923 are in the public domain, subject to the terms of any applicable treaty or agreement. You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this work. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties, such as artists or artists' heirs holding the rights to the work. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. The Brooklyn Museum makes no representations or warranties with respect to the application or terms of any international agreement governing copyright protection in the United States for works created by foreign nationals. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
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.
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