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Convent of the Rufai Dervishes

Anonymous Greek artist

1809

watercolor

From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum

Orientalism Romanticism Early 19th Century

Dominant colour

Convent of the Rufai Dervishes is a 1809 watercolor by Anonymous Greek artist, a Orientalism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.

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

The story of this work

Overview

The painting depicts the interior of a Rufai dervish convent in Istanbul, where dervishes stand in a circle as one performs a ritual involving heated skewers. A man heats the skewers at the right, while another dervish has collapsed on the floor. Two European observers and a dragoman watch the scene from the doorway. The work was part of a series commissioned by Stratford Canning during his diplomatic mission to Istanbul in 1808–1809.

Read the full account in the museum source.