British Orientalist Art

London's Tate Britain has an interesting exhibition opening on 4 June and continuing until 31 August: British Orientalist Painting. Tate claims this to be "the first exhibition ever to survey British art of the Near East: Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries". With over 120 paintings, prints and drawings by artists such as John Frederick Lewis, Edward Lear, David Wilkie, Lord Leighton and William Holman Hunt, this is a biggy. So are the admission fees: £10 adults, £9 silver surfers (90%), £8 students and the unemployed. Strewth, Tate, that's daylight robbery! Haven't you heard there's a recession?