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306 Marsha Morton sought to encourage at home to ensure the survival of the multi-ethnic Habsburg Em- pire. Eitelberger evidently believed that Müller had accomplished just this goal. In 1881 he praised him in ethnographic terms : “Und heutigen Tages gibt es wol [sic] keinen deutschen Maler, der mit dem Orient künstlerisch so vollständig vertraut ist, wie Müller. Er spricht die Verkehrssprache des Orients, kennt die Sitten und Leute Egyptens und schildert sie mit Treue und mit Geist.”56 For this reason, Müller’s paintings could ena- ble the Viennese to perceive the “humanity” of the Arab. Criticizing provincial Austri- ans who, unlike the English and Americans, were only now beginning “den Orient zu schätzen und Egypten zu studiren”, Eitelberger supported Müller’s efforts to enable this. He wrote : “[…] für unsere Gewohnheitsmenschen macht ein Bild aus dem Orient ei- nen fremdartigen Eindruck, und so finden diese das Menschliche beim Egypter nicht so leicht heraus, wie bei Bildern, wo der Oberösterreicher oder Schwarzwälder geschildert wird.”57 (emphasis added). The issues and opinions expressed by Eitelberger would dominate the critical dia- logue about cultural appropriation and representation surrounding Müller during the next decade ; these still resonate today in discourses on Orientalism begun by Edward Said. Müller was championed by Eitelberger and other writers in comments that pre- sumptively took for granted the ability of a Western man with a limited knowledge of Arabic to fully understand and depict the Eastern world. It was assumed that he had the ability to become, as Ludwig Hevesi pronounced, “ein naturalisirter Fellah.”58 Nonethe- less, the positive reviews encouraged intercultural learning while the negative ones were either racist or dismissive of the entire enterprise. Opposing attitudes were first voiced in articles on Müller’s exhibition at the Künstlerhaus in January 1883. He was praised by “H. Gr.” in Die Presse for rendering an exotic world familiar to the Viennese through his absorption of Fellahin native vision evidenced by his sand-toned palette : “[…] er selbst ist tiefer ins fremde Volksleben eingedrungen und durch ihn interessiren auch wir uns behaglicher für dasselbe.”59 By contrast, and in direct opposition to Eitelberger’s observations, Alfred von Wurzbach denied the very possibility of any artist painting or appreciating a different culture. Wurzbach maintained that this could only be accom- plished by someone born and raised in the same country. The Western artist, he wrote, 56 Eitelberger, Leopold  K. Müller (cit. no.  4), p.  405. 57 Ibid., p.  406. 58 L. Hevesi, Künstlerhaus, in : Fremden-Blatt, 21  January 1883, reprinted in : Zemen (ed.), Leopold Carl Müller (cit. n.  2), p.  430. 59 H. Gr., Leopold Müller (Aus dem Künstlerhause), in : Die Presse, 23  January 1883, reprinted in : Zemen (ed.), Leopold Carl Müller (cit. n.  2), p.  432. Open Access © 2019 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN