Osman Hamdi Bey: Carpet Merchant
Carpet Seller sets an example for the “East-West opposition” issue. The European seated on a set with a colonial hat and the Ottoman seller seated on the floor in a turban are depicted face to face. While the girl, who is a small model of her mother, examines this different person with curiosity, her husband is more cautiously standing next to the old Ottoman, just behind her husband. The richly embroidered wall in the background, the Chinese vases in its niches, the tombac coffee pot, the helmet, the gun with mortar and many carpets exemplify the richness of the East that attracts the West. Two different worlds are depicted head-to-head on the axis of the background niche.