Terms and conditions of use
Man in Ottoman dress
(1830-1840)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
76.3 × 61.2 cm (image) 76.8 × 61.5 cm (canvas)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Luisa, Simona and Luca Valmorbida in memory of Carlo Valmorbida, 2010
Gallery location
19th Century European Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Jožef Tominc trained as an artist in Rome in proximity to his mentor and rival, Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres. Tominc spent his later career working in Vienna and the north Italian region of his birthplace, Gorizia and Trieste (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) where he was feted as the leading portrait painter. This portrait of an unknown sitter in Ottoman attire was painted in Trieste, the cosmopolitan seaport of the Habsburg monarchy. One theory is that it was commissioned to document a stage in a marriage negotiation, based on the Arabic inscription in the letter, which reads: ‘For your dowry: To the honoured Nicola al-Habib the jewel(s), for my respected uncle in Trieste’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
(Trieste)
Inscription
inscribed (vertically) in brown paint l.c.: (Arabic text) / Sig N (" under N) Nicola Hab / Trieste
Accession Number
2010.363
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Portraits
Subjects (specific)
half figures headgear letters (correspondence) men (male humans) moustaches Ottoman (style) turbans
Frame
The frame on Man in Ottoman dress takes the form of a classical revival scotia profile, painted black, with a gilded shield and dart ornament at the sight edge.
It uses corner joints mitred on the front, half lapped on the reverse. An adjustment to the rebate suggests the frame may be re-cycled to this painting.
It came with the painting in 2010.
The frame has a twentieth century counterpart made by C. Buhlmayer on Ammersee in winter, 1914, by Max Kahrer (2004.120)
Frame Details
Framemaker
Unknown - 19th century
Materials
timber, paint, composition, gold leaf