View of the Sultanahmed Mosque from Kadıköy Point

Painted from Pera and Galata, this Cassas composition diverges from the traditional Sarayburnu composition and depicts the Historical Peninsula from a different angle by placing the Sultanahmed Mosque at its center. Created after his return to France, the painting is based on the sketches that the artist made during his stay in İstanbul. A sketch preserved in the inventory of Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne reflects the same composition as this painting and offers valuable insight into Cassas’s technique of İstanbul paintings vis-à-vis this watercolor created at a later date. While the artist’s note “Kadıköy Point from Fenerbahçe” on the sketch appears confusing, the angle from which we see the Historical Peninsula indicates that it was painted from Kadıköy. The sailboats seen in the watercolor are not included in the said sketch; there are also variations in the figures in the foreground and the urban texture. Cassas must have added details from his memory to the sketch he made in İstanbul. It can be argued that in this sense, the painting resembles a capriccio.