Beyrouth, retour de fantasia

Félix Ziem's 'Beirut, Return from Fantasia' (1887) depicts the theatrical military display — the fantasia — that was a feature of celebration in Arab culture, featuring horsemen at full gallop firing rifles into the air. Beirut, then a growing cosmopolitan port within the Ottoman Empire, provided an urban setting for this colorful military display that combined Ziem's interest in Orientalist subject matter with his mastery of the animated scene. The fantasia as artistic subject had been painted by Delacroix and Fromentin before Ziem, and his treatment participates in this established tradition of the North African and Levantine military spectacle.

The fantasia subject demands the depiction of horses at full gallop — the most demanding equine motion — combined with the dramatic effects of smoke from the fired rifles and the dust raised by the galloping hooves. Ziem handles this animated subject with his characteristic coloristic intensity, the warm North African light creating vivid contrasts between the bright sky, the dust, and the richly colored riders' robes.