The Dahesh Museum of Art, the only museum in the united states dedicated to European academic art of the 19th and early 20th centuries, has from its inception recognized the importance of Orientalism in the cultural history of the West and now has an extensive collection of Orientalist art in all media, including salon history painting, images of everyday life, colorful landscapes, reference texts and popular illustrations. A Distant Muse is the third Orientalist exhibition organized by the Dahesh Museum of Art and its second publication devoted to it. A Distant Muse was a past exhibit at Tacoma Art Museum/