The interest in Eastern culture was determinative in the development of 20th century European and Russian art. But for Saryan, a painter of Armenian origin, the appeal to the East was an important self-revelation. The zeal to cognize the world of the East and himself as the part of this world guided the artist during his journeys to the eastern countries - Turkey (Constantinople, 1910), Egypt (1911), Persia (1913).
'I had a goal to understand the East, to find out its characteristic features for to further substantiate my search in painting', wrote the artist.' I wanted to express the realism of the East and find convincing ways to describe and depict that world, discover its new artistic comprehension' (“Martiros Saryan. From My Life”, p.99).
In this period of creating the works on eastern themes, the artist's colorful palette is fully revealed. 'I have lived in Constantinople for about two months. Within that period of time my work was fruitful', Saryan recalled. 'Of the biggest interests for me were the streets, their rhythm of life, the flamboyant crowd and dogs… that used to live in extended packs' (“Martiros Saryan. From My Life”, p.102). During that period, Saryan used to paint exclusively on white cardboard. In each of his works the painter summarized his brightest impressions. '…When some things did not turn out well, I used to go to the same place to check and enhance my impressions. My problem was to clearly and laconically convey on the cardboard the scorching heat of the sunlight and the contrast of color connected with it'. (“Martiros Saryan. From My Life”, p.102).
Whishing to re-create the real life of Eastern streets, Saryan scales up his compositions and constructs them on the same plane. The volume and the depth in these planar compositions were acquired by applying dark blue shadows which accompany the figures of women in yashmak lightly passing along the yellow-orange streets or the packs of dogs that got the incredible colors in the light of intense sun.
Upon his return from Constantinople, Saryan displayed his new paintings at the Moscow Fellowship of Painters exhibition. The paintings “Wisterias”, “Fruit Store”, and later “Street at Midday” were acquired by the Tretyakov Gallery. It was for the first time when a gallery would acquire paintings of a young innovative artist.
Saryan's paintings, exhibited in Rome in autumn of 1911, aroused big interest in artistic circles.
The trip to Egypt enriched Saryan's art with new works fully expressing his original style. In Egypt the artist was most of all struck by the inseparable connection of ancient and modern culture.' On leaving the Museum of Bulakh one could see in the streets the people who seemed to have been the models for the sculptures in the museum', recalled the painter. 'The same type, expression, gestures, the same manner of walking with slightly raised shoulders... As if they had been wandering through millennia and reached this day together with the fine monuments created by their ancestors at the dawn of civilization'. (“Martiros Saryan. From My Life”, p.120).
The idea of eternity and immortality of soul, incarnated in Egyptian art was in harmony with Saryan's world outlook and his strong belief that a man does not pass away for he is nature himself. It is not accidental that the wooden masks brought by Saryan from Egypt became the symbol of the soul's eternal existence in his art.
In 1912, Saryan traveled to Armenia once again. This time he chose its northwestern parts (Ardanuch, Arcvin, and Ardagan). Unlike the yellow sea of the Egyptian desert and sharp contrasts of the green and dark blue, the artist traced softer colors typical of these places. "The Mount Abul and the Passing Camels" (The National Gallery of Armenia), "Greengrocer", "Morning. Green Mountains" and others paintings are examples of the new color and thematic experiences of the artist. At the end of the same year that was a great achievement for Saryan to participate in the Second Exhibition of Post-Impressionism in the Grafton Gallery in London.
In 1913, Saryan traveled to Persia, where the city bazaar mostly interested him. He observed the languid rhythm of the colorful country, where the life seemed to have immobilized for an instant under the effect of the hookah. In Persia Saryan did only a few sketches. Impressed by the life and culture of this country, he painted a series of paintings with Persian themes in his Moscow studio.
'Saryan is still in the beginning of his creative accomplishments. But what he has given so far is extremely significant since it gives a new meaning to our attitude to the East. It indicates that the soulless… orientalism is over ', the famous poet and critic M. Voloshin writes in the first extensive review about Saryan published in 1913 in Apollo, the most distinguished art journal of that time in Russia. (“About Saryan“, p.63-64).