"With its unprecedented focus on the history of Orientalism in British art, this fascinating book examines the work of British artists who engaged with Middle Eastern themes over three centuries, from the 1620s to the eclipse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922." "Paintings by British artists who travelled to the Islamic world during this period portray a wide range of subject matter, from landscapes and interiors to portraits, documentary, and genre scenes. The Lure of the East includes essays that discuss the beauty of these images, as well as investigate the ways in which ideas about this beauty formed part of the larger history of Western political and colonial involvement with the region." "Placing the British within the genre of Orientalism, this catalogue features both well-known and rarely seen paintings, as well as sketches and photographs by leading British artists from the eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries, including works by Roger Fenton, William Holman Hunt, John Frederick Lewis, Joshua Reynolds, John Singer Sargent, and Stanley Spencer. The Lure of the East considers the shared legacy of British and Islamic artistic traditions, as well as Western myths about the Islamic world in relation to artists' direct experiences."--BOOK JACKET.