Richard Cosway

Portraits of non-Europeans are extremely rare in Cosway’s oeuvre, so the identity of the gentleman in this sensitive and carefully observed drawing can be assuredly given as Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja (1720-1792), the Tripolitan Ambassador to Great Britain, who was part of the social circle of Richard and Maria Cosway during his time in England in 1786. The fact that the drawings remained with Cosway himself and were then passed to his wife after his death, suggests that they were sketched for his personal interest and not commissioned.

Abdurrahman arrived in London at the end of January 1786 at a time when Berber pirates were running amok in the Mediterranean, plundering ships, taking slaves and demanding huge ransoms. Under its ruler Ali Pacha Karamanli (1754-1793), the Regency of Tripoli was attempting to improve its reputation by converting to legal maritime commerce, but its financial problems and an outbreak of plague did not facilitate the adjustment.[1] Abdurrahman’s successful mission was to sign “a treaty of perpetual amity”[2] between Great Britain and the Regency.

Abdurrahman also hoped to smooth relations with the United States, the new country with which the Barbary States considered themselves at war. When Abdurrahman met John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in March 1786, he expressed his “abhorrence of the cruel custom of making slaves of their prisoners” and proposed a “speedy settlement with America” – contingent upon the US acknowledging Barbary power and paying $100,000 annual tribute.[3] Despite the fact that some of his requests were hard to digest, the Tripolitan ambassador made a good impression as a capable and rational diplomat.

Abdurrahman’s exotic allure attracted considerable notice and helped ignite interest in everything “Oriental”. His attendance is recorded, for instance, both at the King’s birthday party and at a burlesque imitation of the Olympic games in June 1786.[4] Being talented and learned, Abdurrahman was regularly invited to aristocratic salons, where his appearance and lavish gifts made a memorable impression.[5] A local newspaper reported his participation in the ball organised for the queen’s birthday as follows: “The most remarkable person at the ball, was the Ambassador from Tripoli, attended by his Page of Honour and Secretary; all of

them were dressed in the habits of their country, and appeared much delighted and astonished at the crowd of beauties that surrounded them; nor were they less object of wonder to our fair countrywomen, who beheld with admiration the venerable beard of this great Plenipo.”[6] A later report describes the “great Plenipo” as an “august sage”.[7] Abdurrahman must have also had a good sense of humour, as some of his witticisms were chronicled in his contemporaries’ journals.

It is likely that Abdurrahman would have accepted an invitation to one of the fashionable evening soirees hosted by the Cosways at Schomberg House on Pall Mall. Regular guests Horace Walpole and James Boswell, both noted the presence of representatives of foreign princes as well as other distinguished foreigners. Such men as the Corsican patriot Pascal Paoli and the Genoese envoy Francesco D’Ageno, were said to have been overwhelmed by Maria’s beauty and artistic talents.[8] Abdurrahman may have felt the same. He would have been particularly comfortable in her company, as he spoke no English, but mainly Italian.

The Cosways and Abdurrahman would have had many opportunities to meet between February and July 1786, as their Anglo-Italian social circles overlapped. Evidence of one meeting, apparently hosted by the ambassador in his country residence, appears in a collection of letters written to Maria Cosway by Francesco D’Ageno. During a visit to Abdurrahman’s Oriental-styled abode, while acting as interpreter, D’Ageno was asked how Maria was and playfully referred to her as a houri.[9] This episode not only demonstrates that Abdurrahman was very much part of London society, but also that he and the Cosways were closely acquainted. Familiarity is evident in the drawing here, where Cosway has portrayed the ambassador with his eyes averted downwards, his hand reaching out possibly in greeting, a second gesture – a ‘pentimento’ – has his hand elegantly lowered.

Cosway’s meticulous portrait of Abdurrahman would appear to be the only observation of the Ambassador during his time in London. Despite his fame and extensive European travel, only one other portrait of Abdurrahman, painted 22 years earlier, can be found. This is by Alessandro Longhi and is now in a private collection.[10] Abigail Adams, wife of John Adams, had the opportunity to meet Abdurrahman with her husband the same year that this drawing was executed. She noted; “He is of a copper coulour and was drest in the stile of his own country, with a Turban upon his Head sandals upon his feet and a Mantle with a Beard of no small length. […] By his interpretor he appears a sensible candid well disposed Man”; “[…] he is very oald, and seems to be honnest and good, in his Way.”[11]

Undertaken in 1786, these drawings may date to between February and July of that year, or to the autumn after the Cosway’s visit to Paris in August. In Paris, the couple met Thomas Jefferson, through an introduction from the American artist John Trumbull.^[12] According to Trumbull, the entourage “was occupied with the same industry in examining whatever relates to the arts .... Mr. Jefferson joined our party almost daily.”^[13] During this time, they perhaps shared thoughts on Abdurrahman, whom Jefferson and Adam had welcomed to Paris in March the same year.

The drawing of the two veiled female sitters has a different character to the portrait of Abdurrahman. This can perhaps be explained by the fact that Cosway was not observing these women from life, but rather relying on a mixture of printed costume sources and possibly verbal descriptions from Abdurrahman himself. The costume is likely based on Greek dress and the women almost certainly represent Abdurrahman’s wife Lilla Amnani and her sister, the wife of his nephew Siddi Mustapha. The story of these women unfolds in the correspondence of an English diplomat, Richard Tully, contained in the book, Narrative of Ten Years’ Residence at Tripoli in Africa: from the original correspondence in possession of the family of the late Richard Tully.[14]

According to this collection, when Abdurrahman was a widower, he decided to travel east to find Greek wives for himself and for his nephew Siddi Mustapha. He purchased two “equally handsome” Christian Greek sisters at a slave market in Alexandria from their father. Lilla Amnani was 17 and her price was higher than her younger sister because she was more skilful in drawing, singing, and music. Lilla Amnani was a “Grecian beauty” no longer allowed to wear Christian clothes. She is described as “sensible and amiable, of a very fine figure, tall, with blue eyes and beautiful small white teeth”. She was first asked to act as mother to Abdurrahman’s children, and then, after converting to Islam, she became his wife. In his absence, when Tripoli was severely affected by plague, Lilla Amnani gained unlimited power over all that belonged to him.[15] The story of Lilla Amnani and her sister, from the slave market to ruling Berber household, is intriguing and evocative, and it was told many times over a period of decades. For instance, Henrietta E. Harrison published a poem entitled Georgian Sisters in Findens’ Tableaux (1838), together with a stipple engraving by H. Egleton, after T. Uwins’s painting The Slave Merchant.[16] Lilla Amnani is also the main character in Elizabeth Thomas’s The Georgian; Or, the Moor of Tripoli (1847).[17]

As neither Lilla Amnani nor her sister accompanied Abdurrahman to London, it would have been impossible for Cosway to have seen them at first hand.[18] Therefore, he has relied on secondary sources for the costume and possibly from verbal descriptions provided by their husbands. Undoubtedly, the story would have captured Cosway’s imagination and his drawing of the two women therefore naturally presents a romantic fantasy in contrast to the honest, first-hand observation of Abdurrahman. Delicate and intimate, these drawings stand out as an amicable encounter between East and West, with no suggestion of a power struggle or cultural appropriation.

[1] Tripoli was part of the Ottoman Empire, but its Regency, under the Karamanli dynasty, had gained political and commercial independence from the Port. See FENDRI, M., ‘John Adams et Hadj Abderrahmane Agha: Négociations de paix américano-tripolitaines précoces (Londres, 1786)’, in Hespéris-Tamuda LV (1), 2020, p. 281. For an overview of the Tripolitan embassy, see LEFEVBRE, C., “The Life of a Text: Carsten Niebuhr and ʿAbd al- Raḥmān Aġa’s Das Innere Von Africa, in Landscapes, Sources, and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past, ed. by T. Green and B. Rossi, Brill, Leiden, 2018, pp. 379-99.

[2] Sussex Advertiser, 30/01/1786; Norfolk Chronicle, 11/02/1786.

[3] The Adams Papers Digital Edition (16/02/1786; 08/04/1786).

[4] DANIEL, G., Merrie England In The Olden Time, in two volls., R. Bentley, London, 1841 (I, iv); WATKINS, J., Memoirs of Her Most Excellent Majesty Sophia Charlotte Queen of Great Britain, Henry Colburn, London, 1819, p. 308.

[5] He donated, for example, an expensive dress to Lady Ailesbury. Narrative of Ten Years’ Residence at Tripoli in Afrca: from the original correspondence in possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, esq, Henry Colburn, London, 1817, p. 153. Lady Ailesbury was one of Maria Cosway’s “most intimate friends” and used to attend Maria’s evening concerts.

[6] Kentish Gazette, 14/02/1786.

[7] Authentic and Impartial Memoirs of Her Late Majesty Charlotte, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, W.C. Oulton, London, 1819, p. 222.

[8] Pascal Paoli à Maria Cosway. Lettres et Documents, 1782-1803, edit. by F. Berretti, Voltaire Foundation, Oxford, 2003, p. 34.

[9] Prose e Rime del Signor Francesco d’Ageno, p. 37.

[10] 5 La pittura nel Veneto. Il Settecento, vol. II, ed. by R. Pallucchini, Milano, 1995, p. 440. See http://arte.cini.it/Opere/480772. An etching of the same portrait by the same artist belongs to the Royal Collection Trust.

[11] The Adams Papers Digital Edition (21/02/1786; 22/07/1786).

[12] It was during this trip that Jefferson became enchanted by Maria and her departure from Paris in October 1786 compelled him to write the only existing love letter in the vast collection of his correspondence, The dialogue between my Head and my Heart, dated October 12th and 13th, 1786.

[13] John Trumbull, The Autobiography, Reminiscences and Letters of John Trumbull, New York, 1841, p. 118.

[14] This book was written by English Consul Richard Tully’s sister-in-law, who accompanied him to Tripoli in 1783, just after Abdurrahman had been named ambassador to England. Because Tully’s family and Abdurrahman’s family became very close, Narrative is full of many interesting anecdotes over the private life of the Tripolitan ambassador. Narrative is also one of the most important literary sources of British Romantic Orientalism, as a crucial episode in Lord Byron’s Don Juan is based on it.

[15] Narrative of Ten Years’ Residence at Tripoli in Africa: from the original correspondence in possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, esq, Henry Colburn, London, 1817, pp. 53-60; 109-14.

[16] 31 Findens’ Tableaux. A Series of Picturesque Scenes of National Character, Beauty, and Costume, ed. by M.R. Mitford, C. Tilt, London, 1838, pp. 49-51. See a copy of the engraving at https://wellcomecollection.org/works/zw9yz8wa.

[17] THOMAS, E., The Georgian; Or, the Moor of Tripoli, and other poems, Bartlett, London, 1847.

[18] Abdurrahman’s nephew Siddi Mustapha was part of his retinue in London and, like his uncle, he was separated from his wife for almost two years (from June 1785 until May 1787).