These paintings belong to an exceptionally gifted artist of his era, a Swiss painter named Jean-Etienne Liotard. He had the chance of coming to İstanbul in 1738 where he stayed for four years. He created many portraits of the locals, especially high ranking people from court life and European Embassies. Just because he was not allowed to paint Turkish women, he used non-muslims as well as foreign women who were living in İstanbul as his models but almost always dressed up as Turkish women, depicted in their daily routines as a lying on a ‘sedir’, making music or in the hammam. The artist became one of the leading figures of the Turquerie movement in the west.
We now know of the specific details of 18th century woman’s costumes, head dresses and the fashion of the day only due to Jean-Etienne Liotard who painted with exquisite detail. I can not stop feeling amazed by the beauty of the 18th century Turkish women’s dresses with many layers, rich colours and patterns along with elegant details. The head dresses are delight to look at too.
The below portrait belongs to him. He loved dressing up as a Turkish man. He did not give up this habit after he has returned to him home country which gave him the title ‘Turkish painter’. So tribute to the ‘Turkish painter’ who immortalised 18th century İstanbul!
Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789)
