The Turkish Rider

Painted in 1842, this elegant portrait of an Ottoman rider can be connected to a group of etchings that Deurer executed between 1840 and 1843, when, mindful of his early academic training in Nuremberg as an accomplished Pferdemaler, he paid homage to the Western tradition of horsepainting, depicting horseherds, stables and riders. Deurer has observed with extraordinary attention the details of the Ottoman rider's dress and the horse's ornaments, and has chosen the pale, delicate chromatic nuances of the 18th Century Persian miniatures.