A PORTRAIT OF AN OTTOMAN NOBLEMAN, PROBABLY MEHMED SAID PASHA (D.1761), STYLE OF KONSTANTIN KAPIDAGLI, TURKEY, FIRST HALF 19TH CENTURY

This portrait probably depicts the Ottoman diplomat Mehmed Said Pasha, also known as Mehmed Said Efendi. As an Ambassador of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I (r.1730-54), he was dispatched to Sweden and Poland, and later to France where he was received by King Louise XV (1710-74) in Versailles. A full-length portrait of Said Efendi by the French artist Jacques Andre Joseph Aved dated 1742 is in the collection of the Musée National des Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon (inv. no.3716). Said Efendi was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire from 1755-56, he also served as Ottoman Governor of Egypt from 1757-58.

This painting has been executed in the style of Konstantin Kapidagli, an artist of Greek origin who was working at the Ottoman court between the 1780s and 1810. For a brief discussion on the artist and for another portrait of an Ottoman sultan, from the same series as the present work, please see the previous lot.