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Frederick Arthur Bridgman

On December 22, 1873, an aspiring young American painter from Alabama, Frederick Arthur Bridgman, embarked on a voyage up the Nile. The trip, which lasted just over three months, marked the beginning of a much longer journey, one that was to preoccupy him as an artist for rest of his long life. By the time he disembarked on April 2, 1874, the direct encounter with the African continent--its light and imagery, its peoples and customs--had determined Bridgman’s true calling: He was about to become the foremost American practitioner of the art of Orientalism--the romantic portrayal of the people, mysteries and sensual pleasures of exotic lands--in Bridgman’s case, those of North Africa.