Ephemera

Smyrna paintings

A range of less well-known oil paintings depicting life of old Smyrna

Lunch provided in Smyrna by the district governor Halil Pasha, the son-in-law of Sultan Abdülmecid, from the trip of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria and his brother Charles Louis in the Mediterranean, 1850. This and 2 below paintings by Peter Johann Nepomuk Geiger (1805-1880) who accompanied the royals on this journey, oil on canvas.

Prince Maximilian of the Habsburgs and his brother Charles Louis on board the Smyrna (Aydın) district governor (vali) Halil Pasha’s boat in Smyrna bay, 1850, on route to the old government house for their reception lunch. They would soon disembark in Konak and would be met by a guard of honour.

According to a book by M. M. McAllen: Maximilian and Carlota: Europe’s Last Empire in Mexico, published 2014, ‘... at Smyrna, he was embarrassed to see naked slave girls in the local market’. This painting seems to capture that moment.

Portrait of David George van Lennep, Chief Merchant of the Dutch Factory at Smyrna (Izmir) and his Wife and Children, attributed to Antoine de Favray, 1769 - 1771. The painting shows David (1711-1797) from Amsterdam with his wife Hester (née Leytstar, of Constantinople from Dutch stock), seven children (of which four were girls), their tutor, and his wife’s father. After this painting was made there were six more children (3 lived till adulthood), of which three were girls. The first child born after this portrait was Peter, born 23 April 1778, placing an upper limit on the date of this painting.

Painting by Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps (French, Paris 1803–1860 Fontainebleau), ‘The Turkish Patrol’, depicting the Turkish military patrols making their rounds at Smyrna, now held at the Metropolitan Museum.

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, ‘Turkish guardhouse on the Smyrna-Magnesia road’, 1833.