There is a simple reason why Edward Said's thesis Orientalism - one of the most destructive books of the later XXth century - does not include German and Russian orientalists - they do not suit his argument. Neither Germany nor Russia were engaged in the colonialist adventures that Said's Marxist framework wants to portray as the acme of human evil. And yet, according to the thesis, orientalism's sole purpose is to serve the needs of empire. Clearly, this could not have been the case for orientalists - such as the Germans and Russians - who were not part of such orientalizing empires. In other words, Said's entire thesis is 'cherry-picked' as they say. This is far from its only failing - it is animated by an ideology of grievance, victimhood and resentment, for instance - but it is a significant failing, and it leads us, therefore, to an appreciation of great orientalist artists who are outside of, and who blithely contradict, his argument.
One of the greatest of such painters is the Russian/Armenian artist Ivan Aivazovsky. It is some time since these pages delved into Russian art, so let us correct that by making a feature of Aivazovsky here. He might well suit Said's arguments of Marxist resentment since he was a government sponsored artist with close affiliations to the Russian aristocracy; indeed, he was the official painter for the Russian navy. But Russia did not rule Tunisia or the Levant as did the French, and so his art could not have served the ideology of orientalist imperialism. Russian imperialism, perhaps, in other terms, but not - going by Said's account - the orientalist project. Yet his work is deeply orientalist and in this largely indistinguishable in its themes and motives to that of other orientalist artists, French, English and otherwise. First and foremost he was a marine painter, though. He is considered by some to be perhaps the greatest painter in that genre, and he is best known for his romantic marine paintings and seascapes. He brings the same romantic sense to scenes of oriental landscape and urban life. His work remains rightly popular in Russia and he is revered among his fellow Armenians.
Firstly, the marine paintings. The most famed is called 'The Ninth Wave':
It is a painting of extraordinary atmosphere and drama. Like many of his works, it explores the romantic theme of man's epic struggle with the vast forces of nature. Aivazovsky was above all a romantic. This is surely one of the greatest, most breathtaking large canvas paintings in the art of romanticism.
In contrast the 1856 painting Battle of Çesme at Night concerns the epic drama of human conflict at sea, the work of clashing navies. It too is a great painting. Like many of his commissioned works it concerns the meeting of Russian and Turkish forces - and let us not forget that it was the Turks (Ottomans) who, contra the Europe-hating Said, were the offending imperialists. One would think from post-colonial literature that only Europeans ever had empires! The Mahometans are the eternal victims in Mr Said's analysis. Many works of Aivazovsky are concerned with Turkish crimes against the Armenians and with the Russian response to Ottoman aggressions, and so they are in that sense anti-imperialist in themselves.
Later in life he traveled to Italy, outside of the Russian/Turkish arena into which he was born and in which he lived most of his life. The painting below, of the Bay of Naples, is a serene nightscape - a very beautiful work - from that period of his life:
An outstanding painting from the Italy sojourn depicts the quintessential Romantic hero Byron in Venice:
His nocturnes are arguably the best ever painted and remain great favourites. There are shifts in colour in his paintings throughout his life but his themes and techniques remain stable. He did not succumb to shifting fashions and so his art seems to be a continuous, unified body of work, a sustained romantic meditation centred upon the sea. With some artists there are a few paintings that stand out and offer themselves as objects of value to posterity. In the case of Ivan Aivazovsky his entire ouevre is like a single object, a single work extended over a vast number of canvases. His production was extraordinary. He painted over 6000 canvases in a career of some sixty years. Some of his nocturnes:
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His directly orientalist paintings - he is the master of orientalist nocturnes - are no less sublime and well-crafted. There are many. Below are some that the present writer regards as the most representative and revealing, chiefly views of Constantinople and Cairo:
Yours, Harper McAlpine Black
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