Ecole européenne du XIXe siècle
The "çavgan" javelin game in Kagithane
Unsigned gouache on paper.
46 x 63.5 cm
This painting is a continuation of Antoine Ignace Melling's work published in "Voyage Pittoresque de Constantinople et des rives du Bosphore". This subject seems to have been quite popular, as it is also treated by Luigi Acquarone, a work now in the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey.
According to the description in Voyage Pittoresque, the game of javelin on horseback was played between the pages of Selim III in one of İstanbul's favorite excursion spots, Kağıthane, north of the Golden Horn, called by Westerners the "Fresh Waters of Europe".
