Touchstones work with London gallery on Orientalist exhibition
Touchstones is collaborating with London gallery Darnley Fine Art for their exhibition Visions of the Orient, a comprehensive exhibition of Orientalist paintings.
This 19th Century artistic movement sought to bring images of Middle Eastern and North African culture to European metropoles, resulting in artistic representations that are prized for their vibrant colour, extravagant sensuosity and luxurious scenes. This exhibition seeks not only to contextualise these masterpieces as a visual record of Middle Eastern and North African culture, but moreover as a reflection of the European societies that consumed such imagery.
In collaboration with Touchstones’ Art Collection, this exhibition features works by artists from England, France, Belgium, Italy and Austria. Through this breadth, it presents a wealth of perspectives through paintings that stirred sentiments of adventure and curiosity across European audiences, at a time when the Romanticist movement was well underway. Intrigue surrounding the unknown, the exotic, and the natural world was pervasive, making these heady visions of foreign life all the more alluring.
Some artists aligned with the movement are known for their depictions of sensuous scenes of harems, hookah smoking, lounging women, violent battles, slaves, and prisoners. Others sought to depict life in the Orient in minute detail as a sincere representation of the traditions and lifestyles of non-European cultures. It is the latter approach that the works in this exhibition predominantly fall into.
Works from Touchstones’ collections include Ludwig Deutsch’s painting The Arab Schoolmaster; Raphael Von Ambros’ The Eastern Doorway: At the Moslem Chief’s Door; and Émile Deckers’ The Blue Headdress.
Visions of the Orient runs at Darnley Fine Art, 4 Cecil Court, London W2N 4HE, Monday 7 September to Saturday 3 October 2026.