An Eastern Question [East and West], by John Evan Hodgson (1831-1895). 1878. Oil on panel. 10 3/4 x 15 7/8 inches (27.4 x 40.3 cm). Collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums, accession no. ABDAG002762. Image kindly released via Art UK on the Attribution-NonCommercial licence (CC BY-NC).
This is a smaller version of the principal version of this picture that Hodgson exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878, no. 97. The major version recently sold at Bonhams, Dubai, on 13 May 2010, lot 88. The larger work is oil on canvas, 31 1/8 x 48 1/16 inches (79 x 122 cm) and is currently in a private collection. The paintings show two British sailors and three Middle Eastern men sitting on a long settee in a coffee house. One of the sailors is smoking a chilbouque that he grips in his right hand while he holds a glass of coffee in his left. A chilbouque is a Turkish pipe of which the amber mouthpiece, and sometimes the ball which contained the tobacco leaf, was adorned with precious stones. His companion chooses to smoke his clay pipe instead. The oldest of the Oriental men with the white beard also smokes a chilbouque. A brass coffee pot sits on an inlaid octagonal small table in front of the Oriental men. Middle Eastern decorative objects like these would have been available for purchase in London through retailers like Liberty's that had opened in 1875. All the men appear engrossed in conversation dealing with the current "Eastern Question." In London the "Eastern Question" at this time referred to the political and economic instability of the Ottoman Empire ["the sick man of Europe'], which threatened the balance of power in the region and in Europe.
When the principal version was shown at the Royal Academy a critic for The Illustrated London News appreciated the lightness of touch here, as in Loot, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin", and responded well to the couple of "jovial British tars (presumably belonging to one of Admiral Hornby's ironclads), who are smoking their chilboucks [sic] with three grave old Orientals in a Levantine coffee-house" here. This painting was included in the same critic's general comment, to the effect that all four of Hodgson's exhibits showed a "marked improvement in design, colour, and handling," and demonstrated that the artist had moved on from his "somewhat cumbrous style of execution," without sacrificing his "racy and ... genial" brand of humour (458).
Henry Blackburn in his Academy Notes felt this was the best picture Hodgson exhibited at the Royal Academy that year: "Sailors ashore enjoying a chilbouque with some Easterns; amicably settling the question of the day. This is Mr. Hodgson's best work; interesting as a study of costume and character" (16).
Bibliography
Blackburn, Henry. Academy Notes IV London: Chatto & Windus (May 1878): 16.
An Eastern Question [East and West]. Art UK. Web. 17 January 2024.
Orientalist Pictures and Works of Art. Dubai: Bonhams (May 13, 2010), lot 88. https://www.bonhams.com/auction/18180/lot/88/john-evan-hodgson-british-1831-1895-an-eastern-question/
"The Royal Academy." The Illustrated London News LXXII (18 May 1878): 458-59.
Created 17 January 2024