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Carle Van Loo
A Pasha Having His Mistress's Portrait Painted, 1737
Fanciful paintings of exotic Turkish scenes became popular in the 1700s as turquerie, the taste for imaginative renditions of Eastern decoration and dress, spread across Europe. In this painting, an artist is shown at work portraying the favorite member of a pasha's harem. The artist in the painting is probably meant to suggest Carle van Loo himself, and the subject of his portrait is traditionally understood as a compliment by the artist to his beautiful young wife. To suggest his own status as a painter, van Loo has improbably decorated his "Turkish" artist's studio with several large European-style paintings, and has included several students, at left, observing the master at work. The painting was first exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1737 with a companion painting, A Pasha Giving His Mistress a Concert (now in the Wallace Collection in London). |