Abyssinia, 1867–1868: Artists on Campaign; Watercolors and Drawings from the British Expedition under Sir Robert Napier
June 11–September 7, 2003
E-book
This exhibition presents drawings and watercolors by Robert Baigrie, Adam George
Forbes Hogg, and William Simpson, artists who traveled to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia)
with a military expedition led by Sir Robert Napier in 1868. In a world now
linked by techniques of instant news transmission, these images characterize
the very different ways by which information was recorded and disseminated in
the nineteenth-century. With Baigrie’s explanatory text written on the
reverse, the drawings were sent from Abyssinia to England by mail or, more efficiently,
in diplomatic pouches, to be published in the Illustrated London News—Britain’s
most popular weekly newspaper.
Readers of the Illustrated London News assimilated the visual and textual information conveyed by the drawings and texts into the British nation’s already romanticized perception of Abyssinia. The landscapes, figure studies, and accompanying narratives embody many nineteenth-century European stereotypes of Africa. Practicing a kind of “visual imperialism,” Baigrie, Hogg, and Simpson represent Abyssinia and its inhabitants as belonging to an exotic and primitive culture. Upon the drawings’ arrival in London, local artists completed any unfinished works, often inserting figures that conformed to their own stereotypical impressions of a remote and exotic African world.
These drawings have been collected by Frederic A. and Jean S. Sharf. This exhibition
was organized by the McMullen Museum of Art with an accompanying catalogue by
Frederic Sharf, David Northrup (Professor of History, Boston College), and Richard
Pankhurst (Professor, Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa).