With the rise of tourism during the 19th-century stories of exotic places began to spread. To fulfill the fantasies of the bourgeoisie, landscape paintings based on the British expeditions were bought and hang up as a trophy on their walls. The whole of Europe was overwhelmed by the Exoticism and Orientalism mania. With the invention of the postcard in 1869, these fantasies didn't belong only to the upper-class. The Orient, framed into a stereotyped image, was accessible for everyone.
Teulié explains that the goal of his essay is "to understand the correlation between the democratization of art through the new media of the picture postcard and the promotion of Empire". Can the postcards be seen as propaganda for the British Empire? An important question is if there was a collective ideology towards imperialism within the minds of the British people? Bernard Porter declared there is not.
Even if the ordinary mindset in Great Britain wasn't explicit Imperial, the mass production of these postcards follows a stereotyped tradition of the Orient. Series became desired collectibles and the images of Exoticism were widespread. I follow the idea of John Mackenzie that "all parts of Victorian society were subjected to the Empire, as many daily objects reminded people of the Empire", such as the picture postcards, "and therefore shared a common 'popular' culture." The scenes of exotic places were closely linked to imperialism. What I find interesting is that the picture postcards are always some kind of reminder of the Western presence within the mythical Orient. A first kind of presence is in the monuments they chose to represent on the cards, with the purpose to also show a part of Western culture. They evoke the scenes of the Old and New Testament. This can be seen as a Western appropriation, visual imperialism. Other series show explicitly the presence of the British. There were pictures with British soldiers and European tourists. They were always set in an Orient background and provided for the British people a dialectic-scene. The Oilettes series is a good example.
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| Set Title: | HUMOUR IN EGYPT - CAIRO | Set Comment OILETTE REMARQUE, PRINTED IN ENGLAND, listed in 1908/1909 & 1911/1912 & 1913/1914 Postcard Catalogues |
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| Set Title: | HUMOUR IN EGYPT - CAIRO | Set Comment OILETTE REMARQUE, PRINTED IN ENGLAND, listed in 1908/1909 & 1911/1912 & 1913/1914 Postcard Catalogues |
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Nowadays this can be seen as mock prints, even with racial distinctions. The old fashioned local people were dumbfounded towards the modernity the imperialist brought. The picture postcards represented these scenes in such a way as if the locals should be grateful for the opportunities Europe had offered them. The distinguish between the Orient and Europe through stereotyped images, that were known to the public from Orient paintings and photos, were magnified as if they were caricatures. Their otherness was the main subject.
Another important thing to notice is the link between text and image in picture postcards. This is namely the easiest way of showing your presence and saying: "I was here".
As Teulié concludes, the mass representation and distribution of the exotic Orient can authorize mental and aesthetic manipulations. Mackenzie speaks of an invented space that is open for fantasies and domination. This was what the picture postcards contributed to, not only colonization of land, but also of image. The long tradition of Orientalism constructed a stereotyped image that is part of the project to promote the Empire, even unconsciously. For the publishers, it was more a commercial plan, but we couldn't deny that this theme, this subject was widely popular and thus shaped the British mindset.
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