Painting was as important as literature in conjuring up fantasies about distant countries in the western mind.
But words were preferred over paintings in the creation of the mythologies that accompanied those fantasies, for words leave more to the imagination.
From the early Renaissance to the mid-19th century, many an adventurous painter travelled to the mysterious East, including the Ottoman Empire, as members of diplomatic or scientific missions.
Writing a report, long or short, in the form of a memoir or impressions, which conveyed information as well as reflecting his personal views about the country where he had served, was one of the major pursuits of a Diplomat. Undoubtedly one of the most important assignments of Diplomacy was to incorporate the task of acquiring and conveying information in the military field with a graphic representation. Diplomats, most of whom came from aristocratic families, were educated from childhood in the classical languages, history, geography, literature, music and numerous other subjects. In the 17th century, it was also quite fashionable for youngsters of European aristocratic families to study art or at least painting. Drawing in pencil, ink and sepia were the principal techniques taught. But as the influence of French and British schools became prevalent watercolor and gouache became more popular mediums. Aristocrats acquired the habit of making sketches during their travels. The importance of such drawings in documenting the period before the invention of Photography is undeniable.
SOLDIER, DIPLOMAT, ARTIST
As amateur artists, diplomats made drawings and paintings during their sojourns in their assigned countries. But few achieved fame for their painting. One exception is Carl Gustaf Löwenhielm, Swedish ambassador to Istanbul from 1824 to 1827, who made over 250 paintings of Ottoman subjects in various sizes and techniques.
Born in 1790, Carl Gustaf Löwenhielm’s military career was far from ordinary. He enlisted in the army at age 19. When he was 22, he was sent on his first diplomatic mission as defense attaché to the Swedish Embassy at St. Petersburg.
Later he fought against Napoleon’s armies at Borodino and Leipzig. In 1824 he was appointed as Swedish envoy to Istanbul and Consul General of the Levant posts, which he held for three years. During this period Löwenhielm captured the images of 1820’s Turkey, its cities and towns, and the natural and the built environment. Löwenhielm’s name and works became known in Turkish artistic and scholarly circles for the first time in the 1970s. Sedad Hakki Eldem (1908-1988) included six paintings by Löwenhielm in his "Sad’abâ d", published in 1977, and his “Reminiscences of Istanbul” published in 1979. Most of these were paintings displayed then at the Swedish Consulate in Istanbul. In exhibitions held in Istanbul and Ankara in 1993, 75 of Löwenhielm’s paintings were shown, most of them collected from the Uppsala University Library. Two
small but highly informative catalogues in Turkish and English accompanied the exhibition.
A major portion of Löwenhielm’s drawings, reflecting the Ottoman Empire’s cities, countryside and its natural and built environment were gathered in a book titled:
“Turkey, as it was - A Swedish Diplomat’s Turkish Portfolio in the 1820’s”, published by Yapi Kredi Publications, sponsored by AstraZeneca-the Swedish pharmaceutical giant. The folio size book contains 117 drawings, and includes contributions by Sture Theolin, (former Swedish Consul-General in Istanbul) Merit Laine and Engin Yenal.
TURKEY ON LÖWENHIELM’S TRAIL
Through the pages of ‘Turkey, as it was’ we can follow chronologically and spatially the visual encounters of Löwenhielm’s Turkish experience, which lasted from 25 June 1824 to 30 August 1827. Taking spatial continuity into account the sequence begins in Pera where he lived and then expands into the immediate surroundings of Galata, the Golden Horn, the Bosphorus and its hinterland, and the Princes’ Islands. And then the excursions he made outside Istanbul: Bursa, the Aegean region (Izmir, which he used as a base for visiting Ephesus, Milas and Sardis) and especially ‘The Troad’, focusing on Troy, and the Marmara Region. These 117 drawings, which currently are kept in the archives
at Uppsala and Stockholm and in a few private collections, were selected not only for their aesthetic and artistic merits but especially for their documentary value. Most of them depict individual buildings that no longer exist or urban districts that have been dramatically transformed.
Löwenhielm in his travels generally used the watercolor technique. But the realism that characterizes the pen and ink sketches that he did on site is lacking in the watercolor paintings. Despite his relatively brief sojourn in the Ottoman lands, he was highly productive. His graphic output must be regarded as the pure creation of an amateur who considered it a mere "hobby" and had no pretensions to being an artist or ambition to publish his work.
Not without their critical flaws, Löwenhielm’s paintings are nonetheless important for offering unique, first-hand and sensitive views of the Ottoman Empire in the 1820s, at a time when few artists were active. The drawings used in this article have been taken from the book: “Turkey, as it was. A Swedish Diplomat’s Turkish Portfolio in the 1820’s” published by Yapi Kredi Publications in cooperation with AstraZeneca.
Text: ENGIN YENAL