OTTOMAN COSTUMES. - Lot 137

OTTOMAN COSTUMES. [Suite of Ottoman figures in watercolor]. [Turkey], (ca 1810). Large in-4 (32.5 x 26 cm). 23 watercolors on laid paper, mounted on mitered pages (ca. 25 x 19 cm each). Nineteenth-century black morocco Basane, smooth mute spine with triple gilt fillet, gilt fillet and roulette framing the boards (corners, headpieces and spines slightly rubbed, very discreet freckling on some plates, first plate removed, small hole with stain on one of the plates). Graphite and watercolor with discreet graphite title at top, sometimes framed in ink. Superb suite, entirely painted in watercolor, of court figures and Ottoman society during the reign of Mahmud II (1785-1839), Sultan of the Turks. Portraits of palace and government figures: a portrait of Mahmud II (1785-1839), the Grand Vizier, Reis Effendi or Minister of Foreign Affairs, the [Captain Pasha], a chief of the Janissaries, a chief officer of the Imperial Guard, the Minister of the Interior, a servant of the Pasha or of the Sultan's Palace, a footman of the Grand Vizier, a non-commissioned officer of the Janissaries, "private" Janissaries with different outfits, a colonel of the Janissaries, a palace guard... Or inhabitants of different communities: an Armenian in servant's costume, a man in working-class Turkish dress, a Syrian, Greeks including a Greek from a wealthy family, a cherbetzi or sorbet seller... Buoyed by the wave of Orientalism since the 18th century and the curiosity of Europeans, it was fashionable to own or have painted these testimonies to the life and dress of the Sublime Porte. Sometimes created by military men who were able to travel to these exotic lands, such as Octavien D'Alvimart, or commissioned by diplomats or foreigners in post, these painted suites were an elite form of refinement. The colors are elegant and fresh, and the finesse and quality of execution of the painted figures leads us to believe that this suite served as a model for a number of figures, of which similar, coarser traces can be found. ORIENTALISM. [Arab world].