Middle East Costumes, Egypt

Lockwood de Forest · May 14, 1878

Medium

Oil on card

Original size

25.4 × 22.9 cm (10 × 9 1/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

Middle East Costumes, Egypt is a vivid document of observation — a small-format study that captures the texture and colour of Egyptian dress with the directness of a trained eye working on location. Lockwood de Forest made several extended journeys through Egypt and the broader Middle East in the 1870s, filling sketchbooks and producing oil studies that became the foundation of his decorative and design vocabulary. His approach was rooted in careful looking rather than romanticisation — he recorded costume, architecture, and ornament with the precision of someone who intended to use what he saw. The intimacy of oil on card suited this working method, allowing quick, layered marks that preserve the spontaneity of the moment. De Forest would go on to co-found the influential interior design firm Associated Artists alongside Louis Comfort Tiffany in 1879, and his Middle Eastern travels directly fed the firm's celebrated use of Near Eastern pattern and colour. Our hand-painted oil reproduction is executed on canvas by a skilled studio artist working from high-resolution archival reference, replicating de Forest's tonal range, brushwork, and the warm ochres and earth tones that define the original — giving you a faithful, tangible connection to a quietly significant work of American Orientalist painting.