Portret van Osman I 1692 - 1745

Claude DuBosc produced this engraving of Osman I sometime between the late 17th and mid-18th century. It depicts the founder of the Ottoman Empire, based on a picture in the Seraglio. Consider the politics of imagery at play here: DuBosc, a French engraver, reproduces an image of a Turkish ruler based on what he claims is an original, but that he has only seen. This is not a documentary portrait, it is a European fantasy. Osman sits within a carefully composed frame, with Ottoman motifs, yet the European artist has never been to Turkey. The power of the Ottomans was well known in Europe, but the details were obscure and mysterious. The blank circles to the right of the portrait suggest the series this print belonged to was incomplete, emphasizing the fragmentation of the image. What does it mean to create an image of someone you have never met, in a place you have never been? The tools of social history allow us to address these questions, researching how images were circulated, and the cultural work they performed.