Juicy Fruit in the Harem: Pomological Symbolism in some Paintings by John Frederick Lewis

Abstract

John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876), the well-known Victorian Orientalist, is best remembered for his careful paintings offering a wealth of details about the architecture, costumes and social practices of Egypt, where he lived for ten years. Many of Lewis’s Oriental paintings also include an array of luscious fresh fruit, which so far has received little attention. The purpose of this article is to assess the significance of this pictorial trope, and to suggest that, in self-imposed constraint, Lewis chose the ‘language of fruits’ to articulate Western male fantasies of the harem, which until recently were considered absent from his art.