CARL HAAG | THE COFFEE SERVICE

Wearing white silk, a young girl carries an Ottoman silver coffee service as she gazes back at the viewer. Dressed in the Ottoman style, it is likely she was one of the many foreigners living in Cairo, a fast-growing city under Ottoman rule with a mixed population of Muslims, Copts, Europeans and Armenians.

In 1858 Carl Haag embarked on his first trip to Cairo via Greece, Smyrna and Syria. Arriving in Egypt, he shared a house in Cairo with his friend and fellow artist Frederick Goodall whom he had met in London the year before.