Horace Vernet (1789–1863) was in high demand both as a painter and a diplomat. He managed to join the French political elite in Napoleon’s time and retain that position after the fall of the emperor. As a painter, Vernet contributed to the popularity of battle scene art, which was his main passion, and orientalism, i. e. subjects, images, and motifs associated with Oriental culture. 

The picture on display in the Dagestan Museum of Fine Arts, A Turk with a hookah, dates back to 1834 and resulted from that trip. The painter worked on it in Rome during his French Academy directorship.

This picture combines features which are the most important for Vernet’s art — passion for romantic ideas, largely associated with the enigmatic and beautiful Orient, naturalistic depiction of everyday life, and official ceremony. The picture also excels in phenomenal details — a combination of objects that are both traditional and exotic to the European viewer, such as a flint gun, a couple of pistols, a field chest, and a sword. The objects shown in the wall shade symbolize the past; and those in the foreground, the present.

Vernet portrayed a man in a gold-embroidered Mameluke uniform, sitting on a couple of officers’ field mattresses and Turkish pillows. Mamelukes, representing what was probably the most exotic military unit of the French army, were distinguished for their unrestrained bravery and loyalty to the commander. They became part of the French army due to Napoleon, who decided to replenish his troops with local warriors after the victory in Egypt.

Oriental motifs make a significant proportion of Vernet’s legacy. He often employed classical techniques of romantic art and largely helped restore the image of the Orient in New Age European art. As a rule, the Orient was perceived by painters as a magic country opposite to the cheerless and trivial routine of everyday European life. Hence, the exaggerated decorative look of the pictures and romantic glare. Vernet, however, never departed from his renowned observation and strove to base his pictures of Africa on African facts rather than myths. Vladimir Stasov, an art critic, wrote: ‘He cannot be denied one important merit: he was among the first, in terms of time and energy, among the first realists of our age.’