Painting of a senior Turkish army officer, perhaps a Pasha, holding a misbaha, or prayer beads, wearing an embroidered coat, the style of which suggests a date slightly earlier than the 1890s. The depiction leans toward caricature, and is probably the portrait of a real person.
Nn1974 i-viii are mostly copies after Amadeo, 5th Count Preziosi (Maltese, 1816-1882). He worked in Istanbul from the 1840s until his death, providing mainly costume studies and scenes of everyday life for visitors to that city. They were frequently copied by other artists, usually, but not always, amateurs. See The people & places of Constantinople: watercolours by Amadeo Count Preziosi, 1816-1882 by Briony Llewellyn; Charles Newton; Victoria and Albert Museum, 1985. A good example of Preziossi’s work from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s collection is A Turkish Coffee House, Constantinople, Museum number SD.824.
