Selim Kahn III, from Portraits of the Emperors of Turkey
1815
Medium
Mezzotint, hand-colored with brush and watercolor, on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
37.5 × 25.3 cm (14 13/16 × 10 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
213639
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The engraver John Young produced several books of mezzotints after paintings in British collections. The twenty-eighth sultan, Selim III, who ruled from 1789 to 1807, commissioned him to make a series of mezzotints after portraits of the emperors of Turkey based on an album of 19th-century miniatures. Production halted when janissaries assassinated the sultan in 1807. Mahmoud II ascended the throne, and Young resumed work in 1810. The 28 chronological mezzotints in this unusually expansive exam...