Vendeur de Caffé par les ruës, plate 56 from "Recueil de cent estampes représentent differentes nations du Levant"

Art Historical Context

This striking print, titled *Vendeur de Caffé par les ruës* (Street Coffee Seller), comes from the influential 1714–15 publication *Recueil de cent estampes représentant différentes nations du Levant*. Created by Flemish artist Jean Baptiste Vanmour, who lived and worked in Constantinople, the series offered European audiences one of the earliest detailed visual records of daily life in the Ottoman Empire. Plate 56 captures a vendor carrying his trade through bustling city streets, reflecting the growing cultural exchange between East and West during a period when coffee was becoming a fashionable import across Europe. The work was realized as an etching and engraving by Gérard Jean Baptiste Scotin I after Vanmour’s designs, a technique that allowed for fine detail and wide distribution. Published by Jacques Le Hay, the volume documented costumes, professions, and social customs of the Levant with remarkable specificity. Today in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, this print invites viewers to consider how such images shaped Western perceptions of Ottoman society while preserving a vivid snapshot of an everyday figure whose simple livelihood helped spread one of the world’s most beloved beverages.

About the Artist

Jacques le Hay|Jean Baptiste Vanmour|Gérard Jean Baptiste Scotin I (French| ) · 1671 |1650 –1737 |1750

French, Valenciennes 1671–1737 Istanbul (Constantinople)|