Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville

1872

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Femmes musulmanes Syriennes à Beyrouth, Costume de Ville is a 1872 by Félix Bonfils, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Félix Bonfils
When & what style?: 1872 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see two women in long black dresses and face veils standing on a Beirut street. This photo was staged in Bonfils’s studio, not snapped on the spot. The clothes show how some Muslim women dressed in public at the time, though not everyone did. Bonfils sold these images as souvenirs to Europeans curious about the Middle East. For more photos like this, look up the subject “france.”

The story of this work

Overview

French photographer Félix Bonfils settled with his wife and child in Beirut in 1867 and opened a photography studio which his family continued to operate until 1918. Their offerings included landscapes and cityscapes, portraits, and posed scenes including examples of Middle Eastern dress such as this one, which shows the full-body and face veils worn in public by some, although not all, Muslim women in public in Beirut.