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A Kulkethüdagasi or Commander of a Janissary Regiment

Anonymous Greek artist

1809

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Romanticism Early 19th Century Portrait

Dominant colour

A Kulkethüdagasi or Commander of a Janissary Regiment is a 1809 watercolor by Anonymous Greek artist, a Romanticism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

Who painted this?: Anonymous Greek artist
When & what style?: 1809 · Romanticism
Where can I see it?: Victoria and Albert Museum

The story of this work

Overview

The painting depicts a Kulkethüdagasi, or Commander of a Janissary Regiment, dressed in red robes trimmed with fur and wearing a headdress adorned with an ostrich plume, oriented toward the left. Part of a series commissioned by Stratford Canning during his diplomatic mission to Istanbul in 1808, the work was likely created by an anonymous Greek artist associated with Konstantin Kapidagli’s circle. The artist employed dense water and bodycolour techniques typical of Ottoman art while incorporating European methods of representation and perspective. The series, originally bound in a volume,…

Read the full account in the museum source.