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Friday 9 January 2009

All roads lead East

Andrew Lambirth on our continuing fascination with the Orient

It’s a large show, of over 110 pictures, but it has a hole in the middle, where Room 4 is given over to maps and a slide show of black and white photos of Constantinople, Cairo and Jerusalem (1850–1920), and Room 5, the harem section, is too sparsely hung. This once again demonstrates the inflexibility of the Linbury Galleries for temporary displays: the exhibition has been spread rather thinly. Perhaps it will look better at the Pera Museum, Istanbul, where it shows from October 2008 until January 2009, or the Sharjah Art Museum (February to April 2009). Nevertheless, if you haven’t seen it, it is worth a visit, for the pleasures of the Edward Lears, the pink sunset hills of Cairo and the Mountains of Moab, William Blake Richmond’s fleshly ‘Libyan Desert’, Richard Carline’s aerial view of Damascus and the Lebanon Mountains, together with Sargent, Spencer and Bomberg.

As a coda, there’s a show called The Young Lion devoted to the early drawings of J.F. Lewis, in the Tennant Room at the Royal Academy (until 26 October, admission free, check opening hours). Anyone struck by Lewis’s vision in The Lure of the East will benefit from this pleasant exhibition, but it’s no substitute for visiting the Tate. Cat lovers will probably want to take a look. There are some really superb drawings and watercolours of big cats, as well as domesticated animals (he’s good at dogs and cattle) and even some human beings, but the lions do tend to steal the thunder.

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