English: A PORTRAIT OF A KURDISH FIGHTER FROM THE HAKKARI REGION

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE ENGLISH BIBLIOPHILE Alexander Orłowski (1777 - 1832), St. Petersburg, Russia, circa 1819 or later

Hand-coloured lithograph on paper, the vertical plate depicting a central Kurdish fighter wearing typical clothing and pictured against a mountainous landscape and cloudy skies, possibly the setting an idealised landscape view of the Hakkari region, a Kurdish emirate centered around the city of Hakkari, dissolved in 1845 and absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, signed on the bottom left corner '18 AO 19', the paper watermarked with a coronet with a plume of three feathers coming from the top and two ribbons from below, underneath the initials 'ISM ' and the date '1818', the plate 20.1cm x 14.9cm, the page 40cm x 26cm, the mount 41.9cm x 30cm.

Provenance: Purchased at a London book fair in the 1990s.

Lithography in Russia did not emerge until the early 19th century, many years after it had gained popularity in Europe, and the first album of lithographic prints was published no sooner than 1816. Alexander Orłowski's 'The Three Horsemen' was one of the prints that featured in this album, next to the work of ten others (Tanya Szrajber in 'Print Quarterly', IX, 1992). Orłowski was a Polish-born painter, who had trained under the court painter Jean Pierre Norblin (of Polish-French descent) in Warsaw. In 1802, Orłowski relocated to St. Petersburg, where he was soon appointed as the court painter of Tsar Alexander I.

Although Orłowski produced many lithographs of his own paintings, on occasion he would also partner with J. G. Ashley who produced new lithographs after the painter's creations and published them in London. Copies of Orłowski's works, especially the ones from his travels with clear ethnographic interest, were included in 'Lithographic Costumes of Russia and Persia from the designs of J.G.Ashley', published in 1821. Examples of Orłowski's lithographs, drawings and paintings are held in international museum collections including the British Museum, the National Museum in Krakow, the National Museum in Warsaw and the Metropolitan Museum in the United States of America.