Mosques in the 18th and 19th Century Paintings

The Ambassadorial Procession, Jean Baptiste Vanmour, (1725 ?), Oil on canvas, 88,5 x 120,5 cm.

The painting depicts the passage of a European ambassadorial delegation, escorted by Ottoman dignitaries, along the hills of the Pera district of Istanbul. The ambassador, who has been placed in a quasi-central position in the foreground, is seen riding a white horse near Galata Cemetery. This painting is part of a series by Vanmour, part of this exhibition, depicting the phases of the reception of the same ambassador. The ambassador depicted in this series could be the Venetian Bailo Francesco Gritti, who served in Istanbul between 1723 and 1726. In the foreground there is a company of janissaries, on the left a group of people watching the procession, while in the background Golden Horn covered with sailing-boats, Süleymaniye Mosque and Bozdoğan Aqueduct are visible. On the bottom left corner a signature on a stone is visible: Vanmour pinxit.

View of İstanbul, Edmund Berninger, Last quarter of the 19th century, Watercolor on paper, 38 x 28 cm.

Berninger had the opportunity to visit İstanbul and observe the architectural monuments and the people of the city firsthand. Therefore, it is quite possible that he created this painting later, based on the sketches he made and the notes he took during his stay in the city. The architectural details and the environs of the mosque, which is placed at the center of the composition and should technically represent Süleymaniye due to its location in the city, are not realistic. Nonetheless, the artist succeeds in creating a convincing image of İstanbul by bringing together the city’s topography, architecture, and various aspects of its life. Berninger has a very similar painting in oil, in which he depicts the cityscape of İstanbul from a panoramic perspective. All the details of the watercolor are used identically in the oil painting; the composition has been expanded by the addition of a second mosque to the right, and the street with the fountain at the foreground is moved to the right and centered.

Yıldız (Hamidiye) Mosque, Émile de L’isle-Adam Villiers, Between 1886 and 1889, Watercolor on paper, 46 x 67 cm.


Although he is regarded as an Orientalist painter, Osman Hamdi Bey’s perception of the East is remarkably different his Western counterparts. As opposed to the Western Orientalists who emphasize sexuality in their female figures, in Osman Hamdi Bey’s paintings the female figures are often conscious of the period of Westernization in the Ottoman Empire, as well as their individual identities and talents, and are thus open to learning and self-development. In a number of Osman Hamdi Bey’s works, the Ottoman woman is portrayed while playing an instrument, reading, or arranging the flowers in her house and she always appears fully clothed. In this painting, which incorporates architectural elements of the Bursa Green Mosque, apart from musical instruments like the tambur (lute) and the tambourine, Ottoman decorative elements such as rugs, woodwork, stone carving, and tiles complement the artist’s unique approach to the female identity.

Two Musician Girls, Osman Hamdi Bey, 1880, Oil on canvas, 58 x 39 cm.

In this painting, the artist portrays the Yıldız Mosque, which was commissioned by Sultan Abdülhamid II and completed in 1886, together with a view of the city in the background. Villiers, who is thought to have stayed in the city for some time between 1886 and 1889 and died in 1889, has various other paintings of İstanbul and. The collection of the İstanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture includes another watercolor by Villiers, which features the same theme. In that particular painting, which Villiers created from the same angle, he leaves less room for the view of the city in the background, approaches further to the Mosque, and places local figures in front of it. His painting featured in the exhibition; however, emphasizes the location of the mosque dominating the view of the city. It is possible that these careful and realistic depictions of the Yıldız Mosque, which the Sultan had just recently commissioned, created with the intention of presenting them to the palace.