{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O52024"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O52024/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PN6171/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2026PN6171/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2026PN6171","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2026PN6268","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AM2445","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O52024/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O52024","accessionNumber":"1005-1886","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"An Oriental Interior","type":"generic title"},{"title":"A Startling Account, Constantinople","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Portrait of Prince Hulugu Mirza","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"At first sight, this painting is an exotic and rather subtle version of what must have been a fairly common Victorian domestic drama. In a Turkish interior, a rich Persian is upbraiding his shifty-looking servants, having been presented with alarmingly high household bills. For some unexplained reason, Lewis does not indicate that it is also a portrait of Prince Hulugu Mirza, the cousin of the reigning Shah of Persia. \r\n\r\nLewis and the painter David Wilkie were both in Constantinople in 1840, and both had visited and produced several portraits of the Prince, his servants and his new Circassian slave. Hulugu was in exile, as his father had tried unsuccessfully to seize the throne. According to David Wilkie the Prince was 'living at Constantinople on a pension allowed him by the Turkish Government. Having been active in political intrigue, his return to his native country would be unwelcome to the existing power, and dangerous to himself.' Presumably the pension was not big enough to pay all the bills. Wilkie had wanted to use the noble head of the Prince as a model for a figure of Christ, while Lewis (perhaps aware of Wilkie's intention) slyly portrays the Prince as an all-too-human being.","physicalDescription":"Oil painting on panel showing a bearded Persian wearing a fur trimmed robe and a kalpak,  seated on a divan, reading a set of accounts in the presence of three of his servants who are bringing him his coffee and his nargile (hookah.)","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Lewis, John Frederick (RA POWCS)","id":"A8614"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"panel","id":"AAT14657"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"oil on panel","categories":[{"text":"Black History","id":"THES48989"},{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Victorian","id":"x29321"},{"text":"Orientalism","id":"x31272"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2026PN6171","2026PN6268","2006AM2445"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"TRANS6","id":"THES250500"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Walton on Thames","id":"x32620"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1863","earliest":"1863-01-01","latest":"1863-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"528","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"gilt frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"480","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"gilt frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"40","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"gilt frame","note":""},{"dimension":"Height","value":"304","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"panel","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"249","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"panel","note":""},{"dimension":"Depth","value":"9","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"2026","earliest":"2026-01-01","latest":"2026-12-31"},"part":"panel","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"J. F. Lewis ARA 1863","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"oil paint","method":"Painting","position":"Front: bottom right hand corner","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"Signature; date","note":"Signature; date; Front: bottom right hand corner; Painting; oil paint"}],"objectHistory":"Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886\r\nThis oil painting was exhibited at the RA in 1864 with the title`A Startling Account'. This title [instead of  `An oriental interior']  is confirmed by the fact that a watercolour version of our painting, almost identical, though slightly bigger, probably made before the oil, was sold at Christie's June 12th 1973, lot 127, illustrated in sale cat. plate 8. as:-  \r\n\r\n \"DISPUTING ACCOUNTS   signed and dated 1863-pencil and watercolour heightened with white  13 1/2  x 11 1/4 in. (342 x 287mm.)  From the collection of the late Edward Le Bas RA.  Provenance: Robert Arnold Cosier; Christie's March 4, 1887 lot 76,  (265 gns to Webb.)\" \r\n[Lot 127 was bought by Colnaghi for 1900 guineas.] \r\nFrom the 1850s right up to the end of his life, Lewis seems to have made a watercolour version of a subject first and then prepared an oil replica for the RA.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"An Oriental Interior, (A Startling Account, Constantinople) oil painting on panel by John Frederick Lewis 1863.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Major-General J.M. Lewis, CBE, John Frederick Lewis, R.A. 1805-1876, Leigh-on-Sea, 1978, no.588, p.95"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Briony Llewellyn `David Wilkie and John Frederick Lewis in Constantinople, 1840: an artistic dialogue.'  The Burlington Magazine September 2003, no.1206 Vol CXLV, pp.624-631."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Istanbul (City)","id":"x33871"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Hulugu","id":"N1334"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Kalpak","id":"x46224"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[{"text":"John Frederick Lewis 1804/5-1876\nA Startling Account, Constantinople\nSigned and dated 1863\n\n\nA rich Persian is upbraiding his servants for the alarmingly high household bills. This is a portrait of Hulagu Mirza, a cousin of the Shah of Iran. At the time of Lewis's visit, Hulagu was in exile in Istanbul after an unsuccessful attempt by his father to seize the shah's throne.\n\n\nOil on painting\n\nBequeathed by John Dixon 1886\nMuseum no. 1005-1886","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null}}],"partNumbers":["1005-1886"],"accessionNumberNum":"1005","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1886,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-13","recordCreationDate":"2001-01-16","availableToBook":false}}