Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737)

Lot 56
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Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
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Result : 161 000EUR
Jean-Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737)
Reception of a delegation of twelve Ottoman emissaries, with the coffee ceremony Oil on canvas 55 x 86 cm An incomparable observer of the "Tulip Era" (1718-1730), a period in Ottoman history when political peace, openness to the West, and cultural flowering rhymed, Jean-Baptiste Van Mour was born in Valenciennes, which he left in 1699 never to return. Called to follow the French ambassador Charles de Ferriol d'Argental (1652-1722), he assiduously documented both episodes of diplomatic life at the court of Sultan Ahmed III and scenes of daily life, both of which were published in 1714 in a collection that was very successful: Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant... (or Recueil Ferriol). While many representations of audiences granted by the Sultan or the Grand Vizier to Western diplomats (French, Dutch, imperial, etc.) are known, the audience illustrated in our painting has the singularity of involving only Ottomans, clearly recognizable by their costumes, turbans and fine moustaches. The audience room is distinguished by a floral decoration of a rare richness, with notably decorative panels interspersed between the window openings, recalling the floral motifs of the bedroom of Ahmed III. The delegation is accompanied by two servants, one of whom brings coffee and the other probably a bowl of cherries. Unpublished, our painting is an interesting addition to the corpus of Van Mour, appointed in 1725 "Painter Ordinary of the King and in the Levant", whose palette seems, at the end of his career, to have become lighter and prettier, with more graceful and elegant figures, and more shimmering draperies, like "Women drinking coffee" (Constantinople, Pera Museum - Suna and Inan Kiraç Foundation, inv. unknown).
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