Market Day Outside the Walls of Tangiers, Morocco

Gallery Label:

“In 1867 Mark Twain traveled to the Holy Land and chronicled his adventures first in a series of newspaper articles and, in 1869, in book form as Innocents Abroad. His trip and his travelogue incited a wave of interest in visiting the Middle East. Of Morocco, Twain wrote: "We wanted something thoroughly and uncompromisingly foreign --foreign from top to bottom --foreign from center to circumference --foreign inside and outside and all around --nothing anywhere about it to dilute its foreignness --nothing to remind us of any other people or any other land under the sun. And lo! in Tangier we have found it."Influenced by Twain, Louis Comfort Tiffany visited North Africa in 1870-71, and his travels inspired a series of paintings exploring his new fascination with Islamic art and architecture. Tiffany was one of the first American artists to turn East for inspiration. Here the city's ancient walls and a mixture of Classical and Islamic architecture provide a calm backdrop for the city's lively marketplace.”

Object Details

Artist: Louis Comfort Tiffany, born in New York City 1848-died New York City in 1933

Credit Line: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the American Art Forum

1873

Object number: 1989.56

Restrictions & Rights: CC0

Type: Painting

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 32 1/8 x 56 in. (81.6 x 142.3 cm.)

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Department: Painting and Sculpture

On View: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2nd Floor, East Wing

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Record ID: saam_1989.56

Usage of Metadata (Object Detail Text): CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record): http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk7fee93e6a-bf70-4ad7-b753-92d4b292030f