{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O154583"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O154583/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV6272/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BV6272/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BV6272","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AT7432","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O154583/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O154583","accessionNumber":"SD.1312","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"The family of a court interpreter","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"This portrait group of a mother with her two children is an intriguing painting, with no information now available apart from the contents of the image itself. Judging by the female dresses, it is an Ottoman subject and the family might be wealthy Greeks, Feneriotes, who lived in the Fener district of Istanbul. Others have suggested that the rather bulbous turbans worn by the mother and daughter might be Armenian instead. The problem is that so few paintings of this period and type of subject survive, so it is difficult to make comparisons. The painter’s style is fairly similar to that of Raphael the Armenian, Court Painter to the Sultans Mahmud I, Osman II, and Mustafa III, and our painter was possibly a member of his circle. \r\n\r\nCloser inspection of the picture reveals more details of their lives. The walls of the room are lined with what is probably a French silk and the table is a fashionable rococo marble-topped side table, imported from France. The sofa is Ottoman in design but the silk covering it is probably imported as well. Children of the wealthy were often dressed in miniature versions of their parent’s outfits. The boy is wearing an outfit normally worn by a terjuman, a dragoman or interpreter at the court of the Sultan, with a very distinctive fur-trimmed hat and robes. As this was a kind of uniform at court, there is therefore no clue as to which community his father the interpreter actually belonged. He must have been a rich man, to afford the expensive imports of French furnishings. This image reminds the viewer that trade and the exchange of fashionable ideas in design between the Ottomans and France and Britain went on virtually uninterrupted from the sixteenth century until 1914 and the final days of the Empire.","physicalDescription":"Watercolour drawing","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour drawing","id":"x37878"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Water- and bodycolour, on vellum","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Greek School","id":"x40678"},{"text":"Orientalism","id":"x31272"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BV6272","2006AT7432"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"SCX","shelf":"5","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Turkey","id":"x29225"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1750","earliest":"1745-01-01","latest":"1754-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"18.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"25","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"According to Rodney Searight: - `Bt Christie's, 23/3/76, £275 (incl.premium)'","historicalContext":"For suggested attributions, see Searight Archive.  Another possibility is the circle of Rafael the Armenian, Court Painter to the Sultans Mahmud I, Osman II, and Mustafa III. See Sotheby's, 16.4.84 (113). The pose of the woman holding her daughter is reminiscent of a portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu with her son by J-B. Vanmour (NPG, London). Feneriote families, of Greek descent, often held high offices under Ottoman rule. The boy is dressed in dragoman costume.","briefDescription":"Watercolour, The family of a court interpreter, about 1750. Artist unknown","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Searight, Rodney and Scarce, Jennifer M., <i>A Middle Eastern journey : artists on their travels from the collection of Rodney Searight,</i> Talbot Rice Art Centre, 1980","id":"AUTH351213"},"details":"","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Turkey","id":"x29225"},{"text":"Istanbul","id":"x33871"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Interiors","id":"x31073"},{"text":"Dragoman","id":"x42426"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["SD.1312"],"accessionNumberNum":"1312","accessionNumberPrefix":"SD","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-18","recordCreationDate":"2008-05-13","availableToBook":false}}