Created by Meganne Patterson on Sun, 05/21/2023 - 16:54
Description:
The British wanted to hold onto India, and they wanted it desperately. In the early 1800s, Great Britain began to view Persia and parts of the Middle-East as crucial partners in their quest to hold onto power. India being firmly under English rule, Great Britain turned their sights onto Persia itself, its initial ally, turned conquest, at the turn of the 20th century, the beginning of the 1900s. One year in particular, 1908, to be exact, saw British interest in Persia for a second time. This time, for oil rigs and the eventual “ownership” of Persian oil. While the British used coal-burning as their more common form of energy and transportation, oil-burning was growing in popularity for military reasons. An oil-burning ship could carry far more gunners and fighters than coal-burning, since coal required hundreds of workers per large ship to keep the coal filled. The problem was that Englsd had no oil to use. So they turned to Persia.
My edition of The Rubaiyat was published in 1909, about one year after this turn from ally to triumph of the English, when the illustrator was twenty-seven years old. The world that Willy Pogany, a Hungarian artist who, six years before the publication of his work in this edition of The Rubaiyat, legally changed his surname from “Feuchtmann” to “Pogany”, his original name inherited from his Jewish father, and his new surname one that sounded far more “Hungarian” and “artistic” for someone new on the scene. Pogany went to art school in Paris and London, and thus, was surrounded by the world of oil and the race to obtain it. His resulting art was very affected by Orientalism and his teachers’ thoughts on the Middle-East while creating the watercolor and pastel pieces for my edition.
History.com editors. “Persian Empire”, History.com, 2019. Persian Empire (history.com)
Phillips, Colton. “Why Were the British So Interested in Persia?”, WordPress, 2022. Why were the British so interested in Persia? – Stuff I Like (wordpress.com)
Amanat, Abbas. “British Influence in Persia”, Encyclopedia Iranica, 2012. GREAT BRITAIN iii. British influence – Encyclopaedia Iranica (iranicaonline.org)
Wikipedia Editors. “Willy Pogany”, Wikipedia, 2023. Willy Pogany - Wikipedia